After four days of practice we were able to get out on Youngman on Sunday and scrimmage the Union Dutchmen. As some of you may recall, Union is coming off the best season in the history of its program, winning 13 games and losing to Tufts in the 2nd round of NCAA's by a goal. While I didn't watch any film on them prior to the scrimmage or talk with any coaches I knew they returned a stout defense and their goalie is the preseason player of the year in Division 3 according to Lacrosse Magazine. You get the picture, this was going to be a good test for us and when you factor in that they have fall ball and started on Feb 1st, we'd have our hands full.

The scrimmage ended up being very competitive and was pretty evenly played all around. Plenty of penalties were assessed on both teams and there were many early season mistakes made on our end but I was happy with how we competed from start to finish. Our ground ball play was ahead of where I thought it would be and athletically I think we have some guys ready to go this year.

I won't go into much detail on the scrimmage itself but will talk about a few performances worth noting.

We had some big shoes to fill this year in the cage with the departure of Ryan Deane but after a week of practice I couldn't be more excited about what we have in Nate Gaudio. Nate was every bit as good as Union's goalie on Sunday and his outlet passes are going to lead to some easy goals for us this year in transition. I think Nate is going to surprise some people this year and has an extremely bright future ahead of him.

Defensively we still have a long way to go but had a few individuals that did some nice things the other day. Johnny Duvnjak is ready to go this year, he was flying around putting the ball and plenty of opponents on their backs. A number of other guys played well but one to keep an eye on is first-year Calvin Williams from Wayland, MA. Cal is 6'1 – 200 or so and runs like a deer, he's going to be a player for us down the road.

Another first-year to look out for this year is Joel Blockowicz from Georgetown Prep. Joel walked on to the football team this fall and ended up starting at cornerback by the midway point of the season. Even though he's already capable of playing offense for us this year he'll most likely start out at defensive midfield and will be an immediate impact player, very impressed with him thus far.

Offensively we didn't light up the scoreboard the other day but we've been impressed with the strides our guys have made in the off season this year. A number of sophomores have come back looking like completely different players and hopefully that will translate in being able to help us on the field this spring. One guy in particular that has really turned it on this year is a young man that many of you know from his days on the sidelines in Vail and that being Stephen Seymour. He had a nice cut the other day in the scrimmage that led to a goal and has been making everyone around him better in practice.

It's an exciting time of year and I look forward to seeing what strides we're able to take this week before our St. Lawrence scrimmage on Friday night. Before we get there we have one more practice tomorrow and then we're spending a few days with a former Navy SEAL and his team called "The Program". We'll be doing some team building exercises with them on Thursday evening/Friday morning on the field and in the pool in what they call Judgment Day. Should be fun….

Best,

Dave