Lacrosse Team Gets Into Game Shape

The boys' lacrosse team took advantage of the perfect 70-degree weather Wednesday afternoon to test their skills in an early season scrimmage against Columbia High School of South Orange-Maplewood.

The teams decided not to keep score while playing their full rosters, which gave the coaches a chance to assess their talent and to begin getting their players into game shape.

"As you can see, we need a little conditioning work," said head coach Al Reinoso, who started the program six years ago and has led them to three conference championships. "Each guy only had a quarter or two of work, so we have to get in better shape."

"Today was the first time we got everybody together as a unit," said senior Steve DiGiovanni. "We tested our skills, what we need to work on. We need a little more work with patience on the offense and the defense needs to be one step ahead of the opposing team's offense."

This early in the season, it's not about minutes played and goals scored as much as it is about overall conditioning and improving their skills.

"Like I told the guys at the end of the varsity portion of the scrimmage, it's great because we need to know where we need to work," said Reinoso. "We need to find our weaknesses, and this first scrimmage really exposes weaknesses. We need work in every basic aspect or fundamental of the game right now, from communicating on defense and knowing where you're supposed to be, off ball on defense, all the way on out to the offensive sets and knowing how to run it, learning how to get free and stuff like that."

"We need a couple of guys to stay after, even when practice is over and work on our bodies and everything," DiGiovanni said. "We need to get up and down the field faster. We did good shooting-wise, people would go to the goal and other people would move, and I think we capitalized on some of them."

Reinoso knows it's also a time to keep his troops focused and positive as they get their game legs under them.

"I told them the biggest thing today is don't get too down on yourselves," Reinoso said. "We didn't do a bad job. We just see what we have to do and we see who needs to work a little harder than others."

The Cougars are coming off their third conference championship, finishing 16-5 a year ago. They lost in the county tournament semi-finals and the state quarterfinals in a successful campaign. That kind of success creates higher expectations each year, according to Reinoso.

"Especially the older guys, the returning starters, the returning veterans, they expect that level, but we have our work cut out for us, there's no doubt," he said.

All together, the varsity and junior varsity have a combined 30 athletes, and another 20 freshmen will play a separate schedule.

"This is the most since the second year," Reinoso said. "2006 we had around the same amount. Numbers-wise it's great. The program is starting to pick up."

There were a few players who caught the coaches' eyes already.

"Steve DiGiovanni looked real good. Michael Sheehan was vastly improved and looked real sharp out there. As a matter of fact, the other coaches commented about him. Will Bender was pretty good. He did a decent job on the faceoffs, a decent job on the down 'D', clearing the ball a little bit. Everybody else was right where you would be the second week of the season."

The scrimmage was controlled, meaning the coaches were able to be on the field to instruct the players when necessary. Seniors and juniors played in the first and third quarters, with juniors and sophomores on the field in the second and fourth quarters.

The Cougars will practice the next few days and then hit the road to face Rutgers Prep for a scrimmage this Saturday.

Watch for our full boys lacrosse preview coming next week.