By: Jack Wallace

Tryouts for spring sports began last week and the boys varsity lacrosse team is looking to follow up a spectacular season last year, after only losing two regular season games and a playoff loss to Longmeadow High School. Their overall record was 16-3. Senior captains Cord Callahan, Trevor McNamara, Luke McGrath, and Jonathan Ashton will carry the momentum into a promisingly successful season. Head Coach Timothy Montgomery and Assistant Coach Scott Dube will also try to utilize a lot of the young talent on this year’s roster.

The Rangers are putting  new pieces together after losing seventeen seniors last year. Just because they lost a significant number of players doesn’t mean that this team lacks experience.  McNamara was named a U.S. Lacrosse All-American last year.  All four captains including junior Jon Rodenbush received varsity reps and many of them started. This year the Rangers are going to have to ask more from some of their underclassmen including sophomores Matt McCarthy and Vince Pascale who both have proven that they can play at the varsity level.  Freshman Jackson Katz could also see a lot of varsity time as well.

 Other upperclassmen will have to step up this year with bigger roles for the Rangers.  Senior defensemen Jay O’Toole and junior defenseman Justin Gonzalez will anchor the defense beside Ashton. The defensive midfielder position will be of vital importance this year, seniors AJ Nowak and Yousuf ( Yoshi) Syed as well as junior Brian Melanson could be expected to play key roles in the defensive scheme.

Last year McNamara lead Central Massachusetts with an unbelievable 80+ goal season. No other team that the Rangers played had anyone who was even close to that number. McNamara has the upmost respect for his teammates and has a lot of faith in what they can achieve this season.  “We have some opportunities to make a name for ourselves and we have a potent offense that will do a lot of damage. On the defensive end we have some new pieces in place but we have the coaching and skills on defense to compete and make another deep playoff run,” remarks McNamara 

The Rangers have become an offensive superpower and with their growing, yet solid defense, they can make a serious run this season.