With over 5o students reporting for boy’s lacrosse tryouts this year compared to the 39 players in last year’s program, the Atoms are headed in the right direction. New players will bring depth and diversity to the team as they strive to improve upon last year’s 1-12 record.
According to Senior, Aiden Peterson, the team faced a lot of adversity and the lack of depth was their biggest challenge last season. He recalls that, “there were games where we only had two people coming off of the bench.”
Peterson feels that with so much more interest in the sport this year from underclassmen that the Atoms can have more success against their National district opponents. As he approaches his final season as an Atom, Peterson set personal goals including “continuing to be a leader and a good teammate as well as hopefully score some goals.”
Returning Junior, Daniel McClendon, agrees that recruiting new talent will be a critical asset to the team. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we can measure against our opponents now that we have more players on the team,” he said. McClendon also believes that, “We need to focus on having team chemistry and controlling the ball on offense to create good shots.”
While focusing on the fundamentals such as passing, catching, and stick skills are the building blocks to any successful team, Captain and Junior, Jason Perloff emphasizes that during tryouts and practices, “A big focus has been communication so the players are all on the same page come game time.”
Veteran coach Bill Maglisceau’s most important advice to his athletes is, “Raise your expectations and level of play when things get hard in practice or in games.” This advice will be particularly important starting March 15 when the team begins their season with an immediate challenge of a five game stretch over seven days.
Regardless of the final record, Coach Maglisceau has one main desire. “The biggest goal I have for the season is to provide an extraordinary experience for the boys’ lacrosse players,” said Maglisceau.
The Atoms lax team will travel to Marshall High School on 3/15 at 7:15 pm where the starting 10 will kick off their season.
If you would like to continue to follow the Atoms Lacrosse team, you can follow them on Instagram @annandalelax.
