Boys’ Lacrosse Gears Up for Regionals

With a new head coach and dedicated players, the lacrosse team is working toward a winning season. As of May 12, their record is 11-1 with only two games left until Regional playoffs. 

New head Coach Dave King has been part of the program for the last three years, working as an assistant coach. “I’ve really enjoyed my time being the an assistant coach for the last two years here, and I love the game. I’ve just been overwhelmed by the players here and how much they just love to play. They all want to get better and they listen.”  

Having experience as a midfield player at University of Pennsylvania and with refereeing, King decided to take the position when it opened up last year.

In addition to losing a coach, last year the team lost ten seniors, “We lost a lot of defense players, but the good thing about Albemarle is that we have a good pipeline of players,” King said. “My aim has been to focus a lot on the defense and have our assistant coaches working on the attack.” 

This year, the school adopted a new district, with new opponents to play. The team has adapted well to the new Jefferson District, winning most of their games with unusually high scores, allowing only a few goals per game. 

In their April 11 game against Salem, they won 15-0. Against Fluvanna on April 25 Albemarle dominated with a score of 17-2.  

On May 2, they played Western Albemarle for the second time, this time at home. In their first game against the team that many consider to be Albemarle’s greatest rival, Western won with a close score of 16-14. This time around was different, and Albemarle came out on top 7-5.

“It’s been a pretty equal effort by both offense and defense,” sophomore defensive player Malcolm Meistrell said.

However he said that the Western game was mostly a defensive effort. “It was awesome. We led the entire game but it was still really close.” 

This year the team has eleven seniors leaving, “I think having to fill those places will always be an issue. We lose a lot of players every year, but we have a really young team,” King said. 

“The thing we’ll miss about our senior class right now is that a lot of them having been playing together for a long time, since middle school at a minimum,” King said.

Senior captain and attack player Matt Crist is one that has been playing with a lot of his team mates for six years. 

“They’re some of my best friends now,” Crist said.

The seniors’ chemistry is something the team will miss, but there are many other developing players that aren’t seniors, such as sophomores Ian Davis, Nate Smoot and Meistrell, and juniors Justin Moran and Cameron Green.

While most seniors will be moving on to college without playing sports or to work many are moving on to play lacrosse. Bobby Leytham is going to play at Mary Washington, Chris McDaniel at Tusculum, Nathaniel Gaspar at Marymount, Sam Calhoun at Grove City, Hunter Brown at Hampden-Sydney and Crist at Christopher Newport. 

Moran has already verbally committed to play at Jacksonville.  

“The guys have set high goals for themselves and I’m here to help them reach those goals,” King said.

Meistrell said that he thinks the team will play well into June, making it past Regional and Districts, hopefully winning States. 

“In the past Albemarle lacrosse typically makes it to Districts, but I think we have the drive and skill to make it further,” Crist said. “Playing into June would mean that the seniors would have to miss beach week, but that’s a sacrifice we’re all willing to make. We all want it and I think we have to power and dedication to get there.”