The Vero Beach High varsity boys lacrosse team got a much-needed boost last week with a hard-fought, 13-9 victory over St. Ed’s in what head coach John Combs described as a “village battle” against a very familiar district and geographical rival.
The success came on the heels of consecutive defeats at the Citrus Bowl to St. Thomas Aquinas (15-3) and St. Andrew’s (13-8) and raised the Fighting Indians’ record to 8-4. Just two more games close out the regular season this week. The district playoffs are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday of next week.
Most high school athletic teams ride a roller coaster throughout the season, and how well the players and coaches respond to the inevitable dips can be a make-or-break proposition.
Vero was never really in the game against powerful Aquinas, falling behind 11-0 at halftime in a dominant performance by the visitors from Fort Lauderdale. It was a humbling outing and Combs drew on his vast knowledge as a player and coach to summarize in stark terms what transpired.
“There are no great words that you can tell your team after something like that,” Combs said. “We have to be honest with ourselves. Nobody likes to lose like that. We didn’t play very well, and they did. It was a good learning experience and now we have to take the next step as a team and as individuals.
“It’s a matter of understanding what we did wrong, and not so much what they did. We made plenty of mental errors and we need to correct that.
“That’s what we are trying to focus on – figuring out what we need to do to get better. The outcome will be the outcome and we want to at least see some improvement as we get toward the end of the year. That’s our main goal.”
Combs already had 25 years of coaching experience before he landed at VBHS. He said, “My family moved to Indialantic last year and I was commuting back and forth to Chicago. Then I decided the commute was too long, so I pulled up stakes and moved down here in August.
“Through my lacrosse connections with some people in the community, I became associated with the coaches down here. The next thing you know I’m coaching here.”
Combs played collegiate lacrosse at SUNY Cortland and Potsdam from 1984-88. He went on to hold head coaching positions at Holy Cross College and SUNY Plattsburgh. In the Chicago area, his teams won four Illinois state championships at New Trier High School in suburban Winnetka from 2005-08. His record during that period was 69-7.
He was head coach of Major League Lacrosse’s Chicago Machine (since relocated) in 2008-09 and coached elite-level high school players and travel teams from 2009-15.
“Coaching lacrosse is what I love to do,” Combs said. “I’ve coached at every level – professional, college, high school, travel clubs. So it’s all good any time I’m coaching and I really like it here working with these kids.”
The resume speaks for itself, and the coach says the path forward for the rest of his first year has three prongs left: 1) Finish the regular season, 2) look to the district playoffs, and 3) move on to whatever comes after that. And most of all, keep improving each step of the way.
Chase Stokes and Chris Britton fueled the bounce-back at St. Ed’s. Stokes, a junior, scored three times from his right attack position. He has a clear vision about what this team is capable of. “I see us going a long way, probably to the Final Four,” Stokes said. “That’s what I see. We had a few little bumps in the road but I think we can fix them. We need to improve our teamwork and ball movement. We have the skills but we just need to play as a team.
“This is my ninth year playing lacrosse and I’ve always loved the game. Coach Combs is a great coach. He teaches us things I’ve never done before and I love learning new things. He is a really good teacher.”
Senior midfielder Chris Britton had five goals vs. St. Ed’s. He told us, “This team has a lot of potential but we make a lot of mistakes. It would be nice if we could all come together in the end. Once we get all of the mistakes worked out, we will be a really good team. I do believe we are improving.”
Britton will play lacrosse at Lenoir Rhyne University and commented on the final stages of his high school career. “This is all definitely starting to sink in. I’m going to miss playing with all of these guys, especially my friends that I won’t be going to college with.”
