Dalton Charest
Equinox Staff
Whether it’s the natural skill and ability of young teams or the experience and leadership of veteran teams, in college sports everyone is just trying to win games.
Both of the school’s men’s and women’s lacrosse programs have won a total of four Little East Conference Championships in the last three seasons and each team has all the intentions of accomplishing those goals again this season.
Though each team has the same objectives this season in winning an LEC Championship, both teams are in opposite situations.
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The men’s program this season has 22 upperclassmen on the team, making up over half of its 40 man roster.
On the other hand, the women’s program has 15 underclassmen out of the 24 athletes that make up the roster.
Older with more experience or younger with more speed, it doesn’t matter. Each team has high expectations and its eyes on the prize this season.
Head Coach of the Keene State men’s lacrosse team, Mark Theriault, and Head Coach of the Keene State women’s lacrosse team, Katie Arsenault, both are adamant about each of their team’s success this season, despite the labeling.
Coach Theriault talked about his strategy going into the season with a tenured team that has the highest of expectations this year than it has in the past.
Theriault said there’s a lot to benefit from this season when asked about his stockpile in upperclassmen.
“We’ve definitely been benefiting off of the upperclassmen and senior leadership,” Theriault said. “A lot of the kids know each other both offensively and defensively. When you bring new kids into a program they may not know a certain kids style or how they fit into the offense. Rather, with all the experience everyone knows each other quite well,” he said.
Posting up a 5-2 record this season, Coach Arsenault is thrilled to be seeing success out of her young women’s team this season. She said there are certainly some differences and benefits from the team they have this year, and it’s looking better every day, especially after graduating eight starters last year.
“It’s a whole new team,” Arsenault said. “We have a lot more speed, a completely different offense and completely different defense than we had last year, which is not necessarily a bad thing,” she said.
She continued, “For us, we know we have to work 10 times harder in order to be anything in the conference and compete for another championship, but I think that’s the good thing about us is you don’t know how to scout us, and you don’t how to look at us.”
Arsenault is excited about the women this year, most importantly compared to that of past years.
“This is my fourth year now, so these are all my kids that I’ve brought in,” Arsenault said. “So what I’m looking for is completely different from the seniors that left last year and now it’s like everyone else is on the same page,” she said.
Each coach views this season as extremely important to the future of their program in the next two seasons, but the players, whether they’re experienced seniors or new-blooded freshmen, see this year with the same importance.
Defensive Captain of the men’s team and in his senior season, Sean LeBlanc, has stepped up to the plate as one of the most important players this year for Theriault’s team. With a slow start for the men’s team this season, going 3-4 in its first seven games, LeBlanc is calm and collective and knows the leadership and experienced team he’s on will get through the thick.
“I think it’s especially important this year because we kind of got off to a rocky start this year,” LeBlanc said. “We had lofty goals in the beginning of the season and we started off 1-4. Not how we wanted but having 22 upperclassmen, I think leadership is a really important strength right now. We had a front heavy schedule and played all our ranked opponents in our first five games. Honestly if we didn’t have such an older team my job as a captain would be much harder trying to keep people motivated after a 3-4 start,” he said.
Seniors of the women’s team, Sammi Benson and Sarah Valacer, said the differences in this year’s team compared to that of last year is almost shocking but still positive.
“We needed to definitely get some new girls out there to kind of bring a different aspect,” Benson said. “We’re way faster this year and show a lot more leadership.”
“We’ve literally completely changed the way we do everything,” Valacer said. “Everything is so much faster paced than anything I’ve seen in the past three years.”
When asked how much pressure was on them as some of the few senior leaders playing such a young team this season, they both said they could definitely feel it this season.
“A lot of pressure, especially with losing so many girls,” Benson said. “We want to show everyone that we’re still capable of winning and bringing home the LEC championship another year and hopefully is our third year getting it,” she said.
Coach Theriault and LeBlanc aren’t feeling the pressure for their team due to the experience and confidence that have grown along with the teams upperclassmen.
The 3-4 start isn’t something to worry about, according to Theriault.
“Actually you know I’m not that worried about that,” Theriault said. “We’re right there in the top 20 teams in the nation.
He continued, “The other thing is that I should point out that two years ago we had a very similar record at this point in the season and that team ended up going to the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament that year.”
Taylor Jette, a junior attack-man on the men’s team, realized that his team may be in a similar position as the women’s team next season and said losing players like Leblanc is definitely going to affect them next year.
“We’re going to be losing two really important players, so it’s always hard losing people,” Jette said. “But, hopefully we’ll get some new freshmen that can fill their roles, and everyone can continue to step up.”
In the end, both teams are looking to win the LEC title this year after winning the honor multiple times in the past. Players and coaches alike all are jumping on the same bandwagon.
LeBlanc seemed to speak for both teams when asked what each team needs to get where they want to be at the end of the season.
“The seniors just need to stay positive and keep their eyes on the prize, which is winning the LEC’s and going to the NCAA tournament,” LeBlanc said.
Both teams are increasing in inner LEC play with on-coming schedules and that bodes well with coaches and players come the second half of the season.
Dalton Charest can be contacted at dcharest@keene-equinox.com