Preparing for the Final Season

March 2

One month ago, our group of twenty-four young men gathered in the Kenyon varsity weight room for an intense workout. The attitude of this workout set the precedent for the passion and determination that engulfed our Vassar men’s lacrosse team for the following four weeks as we prepared for our first clash with the Valiants of Manhattanville. The memories of last year’s season-opening loss to Manhattanville still resonated as a shoulda-woulda-coulda game that everyone on the team wanted back.

The team gathered together the night before the opening game at the apartment of some of the seniors. Turns out fifteen pounds of chicken, seven pounds of pasta, and six jars of sauce didn’t even come close to feeding the whole team. A few of the players even had to go for an emergency sauce run to the local convenience store to pick up a few extra jars of Ragu. Even all four heads of lettuce disappeared within a few short minutes. Let’s just say feeding twenty-four hungry guys for a pre-game dinner is much more difficult than you would imagine.

Lacrosse was certainly the focus of conversation (aside from people trying to figure out where they could find more food) and everyone was anxious to hit the field the following morning. Our entire apartment was overflowing with the team, people trying to find anywhere and anything to sit on.

The next morning at 9:30 we met once again for a pre-game breakfast at the All-Campus Dining Center (ACDC). This time there would be no shortage of food. We filed in wearing jackets and ties, essentially the only individuals in the cafeteria at that time. A 9:30 breakfast is definitely not the norm for a Vassar student on a Saturday morning. A nervous excitement could be felt around the table. I was especially jittery myself, knowing this was officially the start to my final season as a Vassar Brewer. It is amazing to realize how fast one’s time as a college student-athlete flies by. I still clearly remember my first game four years ago, the first time I put on my silky-smooth Vassar jersey and stepped on the field at Lehigh University to play Moravian College. The program has come so far since that day and everyone on the team was incredibly excited to show this in our upcoming game.

The game against Manhattanville was a hard-fought match on a cold and windy day that saw our defense essentially prevent Manhattanville from posing much of an offensive threat. Our offense possessed the ball in a text-book manner, but unfortunately we could not pull out the victory with a score of 4-3 in favor of the Valiants on the scoreboard as the final buzzer sounded.

After the game there was frustration in the locker room knowing that we had not lost this game like we had lost games in the past, due to dropped passes and failure to execute all over the field. But instead, we felt as though we out-hustled and out-executed the other team, but simply came up short in the scoring column. But we knew that this game was one we could most certainly build upon for the remainder of the season.

The tailgate the parents put together for us after the game acted as an instant pick-me-up for everyone. They give us the opportunity to spend time with family and friends and warm up with some hot chili in the breezy afternoon. The Krull family’s famous steak-tip sandwiches were absolutely the fan favorite for this tailgate with the Danaher fat-free chocolate layered concoction coming in close second. We could never thank our parents enough for what they do for us.

If nothing else came from this game, it gave us the confidence that Vassar lacrosse will no longer be the proverbial punching bag of our opponents and the Liberty League. Instead, this year, we know we can throw the punches ourselves.