Viking Nation –
A competitive fall ball campaign is behind us, and the team is excited wrap up the 'season' with a Green & White scrimmage this Saturday morning. Starting next week, we move to four hours per week with the team for practice. Another four hours are spent lifting and conditioning with Coach Peres in the weight room.
As usual, the time flew by. The scrimmages were a success, especially so for our freshmen class, which desperately needed meaningful game experience. Our biggest takeaway from the fall is that we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to play at the level we want come spring. Fortunately for us, the team is fully on board. Our coaching staff has upped the tempo of practices and made some changes that we feel will help the team be ready to compete from the first whistle. We have the tools and we know what's required.
Our focus this offseason on the offensive end is to become relentless with the fundamentals while becoming more dynamic and deceptive as individual players. The new rules will challenge us to play more freely and intelligently as a unit. In our fall games, we often pressed the issue early in transition or after shot clock resets, and that cost us. Defensively, we'll be putting a lot of time into our angles of approach and our off-ball defense. Faceoffs, clearing and ground balls are other aspects of the game which we need to improve in order to be a force come spring. One really bright spot of the fall has been the play of our goalkeepers. Caleb Espinoza has returned from injury as good as ever, and Stephen Russo is back in the cage after a phenomenal freshmen campaign. Joey Koehne, a freshman from outside Cincinnati, rounds out the trio and proved a capable netminder in two full games this fall. Here are some highlights from fall scrimmages:
We recently hosted the inaugural Fall Banquet/Kick Off Dinner. We celebrated 2017-2018 and begin to look ahead to the 2019 season. Our parent board set a high bar, organizing and executing a first-class event.
Off the field, the men have continued their great work in the community, logging nearly 700 hours of service.
All in all, we have had a great few months and set the stage for an exciting and successful season ahead. We are scheduled to play SEVEN! preseason top-25 teams on our 2019 Schedule.
Season Tickets are on sale now! I look forward to seeing you all at our games this Spring.
Go Vikes!
Dylan Sheridan
Cleveland State Vikings
Head Lacrosse Coach
Game action photos courtesy of Victoria Lewandowski
