The Morgan boys lacrosse team met two weeks ago in the weight room at the school to prepare for an early start of what they hope will be a great year. The Morgan boys lacrosse team is gaining 13 or more freshmen this year after going through a tough season last fall, where they found themselves 2nd to last in their conference at 2-13. The team looks to bounce back as they only lost three seniors and have six seniors returning this season.
Morgan Boys Lacrosse has been getting in the weight room as much as possible and has also set up a winter league where they will go to Montville to participate in Wide World Indoor Sports. The indoor lacrosse league will play eight games. In the winter league, Morgan will face off against powerhouse teams such as East Lyme, Old Lyme, Stonnington, and Old Saybrook. The winter league starts January 1st and is every Sunday morning for eight weeks.
This coming season, Connor Page is returning as head coach. This is going to be his 2nd year of coaching lacrosse. Coach Page does private strength and conditioning workouts with athletes as another part of coaching. The assistant coaches are to be determined but will be selected by the start of the spring season. Page wants to bring intensity to the team and push the team to their limits. From every practice to every workout, Coach Page will be there pushing the team to be the best version they can be. This was highlighted last season when the team was seen pushing sleds at practice. to condition their legs for the game.
Senior Mitch Deming, a starting defensive man, said, “This season the seniors and captains are going to need to step up. We have a bigger group of seniors this year and freshmen, which will help our team a lot.”
“This year is going to be important,” Mitch said. Last year, Morgan Boys only had three seniors and one freshman.
Senior Jalen Bunce said, “Having few seniors was a struggle, there was little to no respect when it came to the seniors and a lot of people messing around.”
Senior Mitch Deming also said, “This season will be a lot different than the past years. Morgan will need to push each other in practice and preseason as hard as possible. Team workouts and winter leagues will keep our chemistry as a team. Their goal this year should be to make it to the shoreline championship. Morgan boys all have the talent, they just need to focus on our struggles and capitalize on them. A big part of that will be their defense and clears.”
The team’s strength last year was there midfield and attackmen. Morgan scored many of there goals when they held possession of the ball. We only let up goals when our defense had miscommunication and fast breaks. These problems can be capitalized on and fixed before the season starts. Our goal for this year for defense is to only let up six goals a game.
A lot of teams in the Shoreline conference lost a lot of players, including the conference champions last season, Old Saybrook. The teams Morgan needs to beat this year will be HK and Old Saybrook. These teams have had the best record in our conference for the past 3 years. These are teams that have beaten us in the past years. The hardest team that Morgan will face this year in Shoreline will be HK. They have gone to the Shoreline championship for the past 3 years.
Deming believes Morgan can make it to the Shoreline Championship but to do that everyone needs to be working in the off-season and working together.
With a new CIAC rule, Morgan can start on Saturday, March 30th. This is going to help Morgan a lot by being able to start earlier. This will help a lot because we will be able to have scrimmages earlier and practices.
Deming said, “We will need to capitalize on our defense and defensive ball clears which will help our offense.” Morgan boys are getting their preparation in early and ready to have a good record this coming season.
