Lacrosse Sea­son Be­gins

MISHAWKA—On March 11, 2020, the lacrosse team faced off against the #7 Mar­ian Knights in In­di­anapo­lis, Ind. The team lost that game 21-6, but lit­tle did the Pi­lots know that it would be their fi­nal game of the 2020 sea­son. In about a week, their next com­peti­tor, Lour­des, for­feited their game, and then the an­nounce­ment came down that all ath­let­ics would be halted.  

“Sure, it cer­tainly af­fected our growth and de­vel­op­ment,” Coach Je­remy Brown said on the de­vel­op­ment of his play­ers af­ter the sea­son was shut down. “Only get­ting the chance to play a few games and only get­ting a cou­ple of weeks of prac­tice out­side once the field was clear def­i­nitely kept the play­ers from reach­ing their po­ten­tial. So much de­vel­op­ment hap­pens once we get out of the gym and onto a full-sized field, and they just did­n’t have much of that last year. On the other hand, the loss of last sea­son al­lowed some play­ers to re­turn this year which has made a big dif­fer­ence for the team. On our team we re­ally try to fo­cus on the pos­i­tives, be grate­ful for what we have, find God in every­thing, and make the best of every sit­u­a­tion. This is no dif­fer­ent.” 

When the Pi­lots got this year’s sea­son un­der­way against Saint Am­brose Uni­ver­sity on Feb. 26, they wanted to start it on the right foot. Af­ter be­ing tied go­ing into half­time with a team re­ceiv­ing votes, Coach Brown knew this year’s team was dif­fer­ent from what he had a year ago. They ended up los­ing 18-9, but the Pi­lots have car­ried their mo­men­tum to a 2-4 start to the sea­son. Con­sid­er­ing their last full cam­paign in 2018-19 ended with a 1-13 record, a 2-4 start is just what the Pi­lots were hop­ing for. 

“We have im­proved in every area from last year. Our de­fense has made huge strides,” Coach Brown said. “Es­pe­cially since they were the most in­ex­pe­ri­enced group on the team. Their im­prove­ment has been tremen­dous. Our draw con­trols have also been much bet­ter, as well as our team’s abil­ity to re-de­fend, or “ride”, in the mid­field af­ter a turnover. The ride is the one area of the game where all 12 play­ers on the field are in­volved, and they are work­ing so well to­gether dur­ing that phase.” 

For more in­for­ma­tion on the wom­en’s lacrosse team visit www.bupi­lots.com.