Unfortunately, the boys’ varsity lacrosse lost in the playoffs against Northside Christian High School on April 11, ending their 2022 season with a 5-11. Their overall for this season was 4-9, with one win at home and four away. Now that season is over, head coach Eric Smithers and the team are working on shaping the 2023 season right away.

With many seniors leaving the team, next season will have an entirely new defensive crew, aside from returning players Dominic DeMicco (’24) and Liam Doyle (’23) on the unit. On the offense side of the field, they have planted the seeds to build their offensive muscle at the beginning of this past season, but they still have room to increase their potential scoring threat for future seasons. 

“I feel like the offensive side of the field will do well because they are, by now, a gelled together unit that has potential to become a scoring threat. There is also potential in the fact that there is significant depth on the offensive side of the field,” Doyle stated how he feels the offensive side will do next season.

Doyle isn’t the only one who sees potential for next Spring.

“I’m optimistic, we have a couple of new faces that really stepped up this season being Mason Curtin (’25), Ruaidhri Doyle (’25) and soccer star Layton Perky (’24) all really showed out,” DeMicco added.

After watching from the sidelines, Boys’ Lacrosse Head Coach Eric Smithers shared how this past season went.

“I think overall, the team exceeded my expectations, that’s for sure. We have replaced every single offensive starter from the previous year, so we knew going into this season that creating offense was going to be a real struggle. In that sense, the guys really stepped up, and we had a bunch of brand new guys, a bunch of young guys, and they definitely did better than my impressions after the first practice anyway.”

Another massive shift is the team’s head coach is stepping down after the 2022 season. Smithers started the lacrosse program in 2011 and has been Head Coach throughout the entire ride.

“It’s the biggest thing that makes me nervous about this whole decision is what is going to happen with this program that I’ve spent 12 years of my life building… you know, in the end, it is a difficult decision for me. I have to step away… well, in the current form, it’s too much for me. If I can still stay and I can still help somebody else and be that liaison on campus… help in regard to recruiting kids. Be that point person; I’d be happy to do that,” Smithers said.

With the head coach stepping down, this doesn’t mean he is dissociating from the team altogether. With Smithers leaving his position, he wants to focus more on teaching his IB students.

“I have a lot of confidence in the returning players, they will come together as a group and they’re going to do what it takes, they’re going to have to keep competing,” said Smithers in discussing the team’s future without him.

With the team shifting in many ways, the team has only confidence for next season.

“The image of the team is going to change… it’s going to evolve. I don’t think it’s going to die; we have too much spirit, too much energy to completely go away,” Smithers said.