Fours were wild last Friday night when St. Ed’s varsity boys lacrosse team used a fourth quarter surge to pull away from Gulf Coast HS and post a 15-7 victory.
Mason Heim, Ritter Marchant and Barrett Rhymes scored four goals apiece as the Pirates (5-6) won back-to-back games for the first time this season. It was the right time to start building some momentum with three more games slated this week to conclude the regular season. The district playoffs arrive next week.
“Currently the best way I can describe our play is that we play really well at times, and at other times we play like we are inexperienced,” first year head coach Doug Bailey told us. “That’s the nature of who we are right now.
“We have a lot of first year players that are just starting to develop. We are also trying to weave in the talents of our more experienced players within the systems that I am trying to put in.
“There’s a lot of learning going on and you can see that when we are on the field. The neat thing is that sometimes we do great things against very good teams – however against lesser teams we can look like we are definitely still developing.
“One of the things that I want to make sure of is that we keep our goals in mind and work toward those goals. We remain very positive about what we want to do and what we’re trying to accomplish.”
In raw terms the coach wants his guys to be on the upswing right now, and there is evidence that the gradual, season-long process to that end may be working.
“I knew coming in that we had a wide mix of players in terms of experience,” Bailey said. “I realized that we were not going to be a top team right off the bat. We had to develop through the season and get the players to use the system to get to the right places on the field at particular times.
“The number one goal was for everyone to understand how to play really good lacrosse. The second thing was for the players to utilize their teammates so we are not a one-dimensional team.
“Lastly the goal is to build upon that during our season. We didn’t necessarily have to be the best team from the beginning through the middle of the season, but be the best team that we can be at the end going into the district playoffs.”
Bailey has an extensive background coaching lacrosse at the high school and college levels in Pennsylvania. One day a few years ago he concluded that a change was necessary.
“I was an assistant coach at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College and one day I was outside in the middle of February in 9-degree weather for two hours. I literally told the head coach that this would never happen again. I started looking seriously at moving and coming to a nicer place on Earth.”
The Penn State graduate landed at St. Ed’s this year as the Health and physical education director and head coach of the varsity boys lacrosse team.
The game against Gulf Coast was played on Senior Night. Josh Hurwitz, Kevin Murphy, Mason Heim and Zane Zudans were honored.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year,” Hurwitz said. “I’m an attack man but on this team that really doesn’t mean much. You are going to play attack and midfield no matter who you are. So I’m running up and down the field and the seven of us on offense don’t really leave the field, but we have a good system where we split up running back on defense. We share the wealth.
“We’ve really worked out the kinks and the coach always stresses eliminating our mistakes and maximizing an opponent’s weaknesses. Our record isn’t pretty right now but we’ve played some tight games against good teams. We are prepared for the district competition coming up.”
Murphy had seven saves in goal against Gulf Coast and recently signed to play lacrosse at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. He said, “It’s definitely been an up-and-down season, but I always like to think in the best way possible. We have a tough district (VBHS, Martin County, Jensen Beach and South Fork), but I’m looking forward to it.
“We have a young team but a lot of the seniors and juniors have stepped up to take leadership roles.”
For that the new coach is grateful. “In the short time I’ve had to get to know our seniors, my only regret is that I won’t have the ability to coach them next year. The most intriguing and satisfying part of coaching is developing a trusting rapport and utilizing their talents in such a way as to make their experience most successful. That will be cut short only because of the limited time we have together this spring.”
