For the past few years the Athens Drive High School, varsity women’s lacrosse team has had varying seasons. During the 2015 season, the team had a 9-6 record, and just last year they had a 1-9 record. With a new coach, Mike Sangiacomo, and a number of experienced players, this year is shaping to to be an improvement from last year.
With the season starting Feb. 20, the team has a couple of weeks until their first game Feb. 24. The team practices every day after school in order to mentally and physically prepare them for the season. Everyday they work on lacrosse skills and conditioning to increase their speed and stamina during their games, which has been called one of the fastest sports played on two feet.
With the addition of a new practice field between the baseball field and tennis courts, all the different spring sports teams are able to focus and practice on separate fields. This means there will not be distractions of the other sports teams to set back their practices thus increasing comprehension of the practice.
With the addition of the new coach, Mike SanGiacomo, many students at Athens believe he is the key to a newfound success.
“From what I was able to observe of last year’s team, I will focus on developing and implementing a team mentality. Increased game savvy will be key to our success,” said Mike Sangiacomo, coach.
Coach Sangiacomo is working day in and day out to improve the team this year. Teamwork is a key to success when it comes to lacrosse. If the players do not know what their teammates are doing and everyone is running around clueless it will be complete chaos.
“We have very smart young ladies that are talented.Our biggest challenge is to learn to play as a team with constant ball movement and field spacing,” said Sangiacomo.
One of the main focuses for the season will be working on increasing speed and agility. Two elements of lacrosse necessary for any team to do well.
“I am very proud of my players, they have been working to improve all aspects of their game. We started with summer and fall workouts. We continued to develop through winter workouts, consisting of weight training, speed and agility,” said Sangiacomo.
His players feel a sense of improvement as well. Many of the players from last year playing on varsity this year are participating in workouts after school improving their skill.
“The workouts have definitely helped me prepare for the season ahead, before conditioning I wasn’t as in shape but I think I’m more prepared now that I’ve attended them,” said Molly Vaziri, senior.
