Are the Raiders Ready for Prime Time?

It was the biggest week of the season for the Ramapo lacrosse team, and the coaching staff essentially told them to throw their playbooks out the window.

The Raiders were headed for showdowns with traditional powers Bergen Catholic and Kinnelon, and—armed with a stack of fresh scouting reports—head coach Tim Roy and his staff told the Raiders it was time to devise a new game plan.

A varsity sports season can turn on a dime, and sometimes those turning points take place on a field devoid of spectators, referees or even an opponent.

“The attitude the kids showed in practice that week, the level of seriousness and discipline they showed told the coaching staff everything we needed to know,” said assistant coach Rob Tabeek. “And then to go out and win each of those games by more than a goal—that jump-started us, and showed we were ready to take the next big step.”

The Raiders, 6-3, and seeded fourth in the upcoming Bergen County Tournament, took another big step last Friday by topping Mahwah by a 12-8 count. Wednesday night under the lights at Don Bosco [7 p.m.], Ramapo will be offered a measuring stick to see just how far they’ve come.

“There aren’t many games a high school athlete will remember for the rest of their lives,” said Tabeek, “but this is one of those games. It’s the kind of game that could be lost on a single mistake, but it’ll be intense and it’ll be fun. The kids are fully aware they’re playing a team coached by arguably the best lacrosse player ever to come out of the state [Mike Springer, a four-time All American at Syracuse University]. What makes it even more meaningful is that we could wind up seeing them in the county tournament [where they are the No. 2 seed] as well.”

Offensively, the Raiders are led by a four-year varsity standout Chris Colaneri, a big-game player who struck for five goals against Mahwah and three against Bergen Catholic. Colaneri is committed to play at Delaware next season. On the defensive side of the ball, Matt Bunting is in the homestretch of a varsity career that propelled him to the Division I team at Wagner next year.

Also keying the Raider defense are fellow seniors Matt Laducer and goalie Mike Turpan, who emerged from tryouts as a first-year starter, and according to Tabeek, “has the perfect temperament for a goalie.”

Ramapo was a .500 team last season, but showed plenty of fight before bowing out of the county tournament [to Don Bosco] by a goal, and the state semifinals to Princeton. They were confident they were returning enough talent to be make a little more noise this season.

“I expected our record to be better at this point, but we’ve been competitive in every game,” said Tabeek, “and those are the teams that are usually successful in the tournaments. They’re a great bunch of kids. They’re coachable and every one of them wants to be part of this team.”

Since Tabeek graduated from high school in the mid-1990s, Ramapo has routinely been among the top teams in the county—thanks mostly to the flourishing youth programs in both Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff. At the same time, Bergen County has emerged as more of a hotbed for lacrosse talent than ever before.

“New Jersey can send its top public school teams, its top private school teams to places like Long Island and Maryland, and we’re right there with them,” he said.

“We’re not teaching these kids high school lacrosse, we’re teaching them things most kids won’t see until they get into college.”And tonight in Ramsey, two-well schooled programs get to show what a little higher education can do.