St. Andrew's Episcopal School Lacrosse Team Emphasizes Offensive Attack

As ’s lacrosse coach Michael Chapper stood in front of his team during the first day of preseason practice, he repeatedly emphasized two key components that would be paramount to the Lions’ success this season – trusting each other and working together as a team.

A month later, he’s still voicing the same message and is seeing his young Lions making progressive strides in both areas.

Despite graduating nine seniors from last year’s team, SAES beat Sandy Spring, 16-4, in its season opener last Friday before falling to Flint Hill, 15-6, on Tuesday.

“We’re young, but we’re improving,” said Chapper, who was named the Lions’ head coach in February after serving two years as an assistant. “I’m obviously happy with how we did against Sandy Spring, but disappointed about how we did against Flint Hill, [although] Flint Hill is perennially at the top of our conference. But I hope by the end of the season, when we’re playing some of the other teams that are at the top of our conference, that we play better than we did against Flint Hill.”

And Chapper is confident his Lions will be capable of doing just that, largely thanks to a highly potent offensive attack.

Freshman attackman Will Duvall and freshman midfielder Drew Altizer have each tallied five goals through SAES’s first two games while sophomore attackman Bobby Banks has recorded four goals and five assists.

Junior midfielder Adam Broeckaert, who Chapper described as “big, fast and strong”, has also been a catalyst offensively and has helped to generate a lot of fast break opportunities as the Lions’ faceoff specialist.

“Our strength is going to be getting the ball down to the offense and having patient possessions where we’re able to keep our defense rested, although we do have to end up with goals if we’re going to be successful,” Chapper said. “I’m also relying on Adam [Broeckaert] to win us those possessions and get the ball down there for our offense.”

Banks also expressed optimism about SAES’s offense.

“We have two very good midfielders [Broeckaert and Altizer] and two attackmen, Will Duvall and myself, that are pretty good too,” Banks said. “I just think we [work well together] and have good chemistry.”

Banks also couldn’t help but voice his excitement for the Lions’ future. A year after losing nine seniors, including six starters, SAES will lose just two seniors from this year’s squad, which will enable Banks and his fellow underclassmen to build for what he expects to be a promising future.

“I’m pretty excited,” Banks said. “We’re a young team and we have a lot of potential. This year, I think we can definitely play in the [conference] championship game and hopefully next year we can win it.”

But, even despite the potential, Chapper said that improvements still have to be made before the Lions can emerge as a legitimate championship contender. Like Banks, however, he did offer a very optimistic outlook for SAES’s future.

“We have a great core of really solid, committed, consistent players that will become more consistent and more solid every time that they step on the field together,” Chapper said. “They’re getting better day by day. And most of these guys are still going to be here next year and we also have a solid eighth grade class coming in so I’m definitely looking for those kids to come in and contribute as well.”