Varsity Lacrosse: Overcoming Challenges
The majority of the 2015 Boy’s varsity lacrosse team has played together for the last four years, and are expected to go far into the post-season this year. However, in the first stages of the season, one of their best players and leaders, starting goalie Michael Marinelli, senior, has suffered a severely broken hand.
Going into the season, the team was ranked sixth in CIF, with a vaunted defense that includes seniors Bryce Walgaard, Chucky Smith, and Marinelli, as well as junior Chris Reusch. “Going into the season we set a team goal of winning the Marmonte League Championship,” Marinelli said. He described a meeting the team had early in the season, where they set their goals for the upcoming year.
This year, the team’s hopes rest on their defensive unit. “The best part of our team has always been the defense,” said Reusch, a three-year varsity starter. “This year will be our third year starting with the same defense. We’ve had the same defense for three years and we know each other really well. And this year it’s going to be the best that it’s ever been.” But that was before pre-season, and before Marinelli’s injury. Marinelli will be forced to miss a few weeks while recovering. “It hurts a lot, losing him,” Reusch added. “He was one of the biggest contributors to the defense.”
Chucky Smith, senior, has played defense with Marinelli for four years.“Obviously, he was the guy we had there at that position, but when one guy falls the next guy is going to step up,” Smith said. “That’s really our motto this season … We are just going to grow closer from it, more people are going to step up.”
According to Reusch, Marinelli is one of the team’s core leaders on and off the field. “He held us all together, he brought the whole entire team together,” Reusch said. “He was definitely the biggest leader on the team. He was always our second coach.”
Marinelli, upon hearing Reusch’s words, smiled and added, “Yeah, [my role as a leader] has grown a lot. I’ve poured my heart into it, and it’s kind of nice to see guys look up to it. I just try to set an example for everyone, because when I came as a freshman, I had seniors set examples for me.” Marinelli noted that the team was working harder and coming together more in the last few weeks since his injury. “You see them every day at practice, giving it their all, knowing this is the best, stepping up into those new roles, and it really sets a great example.”
Though the team is being challenged by injuries and implementing a brand new offensive scheme this year, Marinelli refuses to make excuses. “When we get into league play this Friday, I’m playing. I’m playing every game, I’m sucking it up and playing through it,” Marinelli said. Speaking about the offense he said, “implementing a couple new things offensively is difficult right now, but . . . it’ll be nice when I can get back out there, and we can all kind of settle back down to where we should be and really just back and mesh into our unit.”
The team remains focused on accomplishing what they set out to do this season, despite some early challengers, including a loss to Oak Park. The team bounced back with an 11-2 win against Oaks Christian on March 20, where Marinelli played the entire game. Talking about his hopes for the team this year, Marinelli said, “We have all the talent to do it, if we buy in, and we do it as a team, we can achieve whatever we put our minds to.”
