Sports
Young Bears Emulate, Learn From Varsity Athletes
The fourth-grade boys squad is enjoying a successful spring.
Find a successful varsity lacrosse program and you will find a successful feeder program, according to Brewster Bears fourth-grade lacrosse coach Dave Bancroft Sr.
After winning eight of their first 11 games against teams from across the Hudson Valley and Connecticut, the youth club has shown great improvement this season, according to their coach.
“They pick up things really quickly, they have been picking up the nuances of the game,” Bancroft Sr. said. Most of the players are very receptive to the training and advice the staff provides during practices at the Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, he added.
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“They follow the coaching real well,” he said. “I am really proud of the way the kids are playing. Sometimes I forget how old they are because of how they play and how they to take to coaching because it’s such a tough game. They play like varsity kids.”
Part of the reason they play like they are on the varsity squad may have to do with the supplemental guest lessons they receive from high school athletes.
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Last year the youngsters worked with BHS standout Andrew Nicol, who is a freshman at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie. During one game this season he made 11 saves in a 5-4 upset win over St. Lawrence University, helping Vassar earn its first-ever Liberty League victory.
“Andrew helped coach last year in this same division,” Bancroft Sr. said. “He’s been down a couple of times to help some of the goalies.”
Another one of the varsity kids who helps out with the program is junior Harry Erickson, a star player for Brewster High School (BHS)’s varsity squad. He is looking to play after he graduates, preferably at the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Massachusetts, Siena College or Sacred Heart University.
“He officiates some of the games that we do,” Bancroft Sr. said. “The kids really look up to him. They love when he comes there and refs some of the games. He will talk to the kids for me, he will let them know how he thinks they are playing, what they should be doing. I just think he is a really great role model.”
Bancroft’s son David Bancroft, Jr. loves when Erickson stops by.
“It [working with Erickson] motivates me,” he said. “It makes me want to practice more.”
