This song sounds familiar.
Having gone a flawless 3-for-3 in their first week of play, the Bainbridge High varsity boys lacrosse team was deservedly excited upon capping their latest win, a 17-4 victory at home (their first league match of the season) against Ballard on Friday, March 15.
The team’s first two outings, non-league matches against Issaquah and Peninsula, saw the Spartans similarly on top at the final buzzer, earning the island squad a spotless overall season record of 3-0.
Led once more by Head Coach Jack Visco, this year’s Spartan squad is thick with returners — five seniors and an epic nine-man crop of juniors — and peppered with promising newbies, including two feisty frosh.
“The energy is really good this year,” said returning assistant coach Jacob Hayashi.
As most of the roster are returners who have played together before, Hayashi said the mood of the squad was fun but focused.
“They know each other pretty well,” he said. “They’re pretty goofy in the best way. They’re goofy but they’re excited to play and they want to win.”
Thus far, at this point in the season, the assistant coach said the squad seems to be moving the ball especially well, a note which was echoed by senior co-captain Cole Emerson.
“In comparison to last season, I think we’re passing the ball a lot more and we’re sharing it. And that really helps the team overall because it’s not a selfish game; it’s a team game,” he said. “I think that’s a really strong thing we’re doing.”
Against Ballard, both teams were on the board early and there followed some back-and-forth scoring in the initial minutes before Bainbridge gained a true lead.
They ended the first quarter up 5-2, and kept the Beavers scoreless through the second quarter to complete the half ahead 11-2.
The second half was more of the same, with the guests sneaking in just one goal per quarter.
Despite the team’s early successes, Hayashi said it was too early to celebrate.
“We’re trying to figure out if we’re good, I think [Ballard was] trying to figure out if they’re good,” he said, crediting the team’s early readiness to the hard work of its quartet of captains: seniors Emerson, Merritt McMahon and Niko Constan, and junior Charlie Hughes.
“They keep everybody running,” the coach said. “They’ve been doing a good job, in the off season they’ve been doing captain’s practices, preseason workouts; they’re good leaders.”
Of the Spartan showing against Ballard, McMahon expressed satisfaction.
“I think we did very well,” he said. “I think we were able to get the young guys in. We ran our offense pretty well and our defense stood strong until the end.”
Hughes agreed, adding the few specific areas in need of more attention had been identified and would not go unaddressed.
“I think our middies need to work on working off-ball, making off-ball cuts,” he said. “And also our two-man game can improve a lot with picks and stuff, we just got to keep moving.”
The squad’s other seniors are Macario Foster and Max McLeod. In addition to Hughes, the robust junior class boasts Chris Campbell, Riley Cawman, John Devlin, Dawson Friers, Alexander Goon, Andrew Kenny, Ian Morosoff and Isaac Morosoff.
Nate Grattan and Wyatt VonBereghy are the sophomore Spartans, and Max Guerzon and Lucas Jones the team’s only freshmen.
Of the senior Spartan, the man in charge, longtime Head Coach Visco, Hayashi said his mentor’s expertise is as renowned as his sometimes frank and direct style.
“He’s passionate,” Hayashi said. “It’s great; he’s so knowledgable it’s nice to learn from him.
“The way he sees the game, he sees everything.”
The Spartans will next play at home — after a two-game tour of Oregon — at 7 p.m. Friday, April 12 against Curtis.
