Photo Courtesy of Choate Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse
Thanks to preseason trips, several teams are well prepared as they head into games this spring season. From March 5 to 11, 37 Girls’ and Boys’ Crew team members trained in San Diego’s Mission Bay. Head coach of Girls’ Crew, Ms. Stephanie Neul began planning the trip in October but faced uncertainty throughout winter as Covid-19 cases rose. Nevertheless, the trip was a success. Cathy Liu ’24, a coxswain for Girls’ Crew, stated, “We got more done in one week than we can get done in a whole term.” Liu’s day started at six a.m. An hour later, the girls’ team would walk to the boathouse. After a three-hour practice, the team would break for lunch, then return at 1:45 in the afternoon for another two-hour practice. By nine p.m., Liu was asleep. Ms. Neul said that heading into the trip, her goals for the team were “to focus on the technique especially as we had a lot of newer people on the trip which was really exciting, and then I think also to build a base of fitness for the season. Doing two practices a day, about two hours each, is a really good way to start that off.”
Boys’ Crew Head Coach Mr. Pat Guelakis noted that one advantage of rowing in Mission Bay was the long stretch of water , preventing the rowers from turning as often. “It allows us to have a good chunk of time where we can really focus on good continuous rowing,” Mr. Guelakis said. The extra time was especially beneficial as most rowers had never raced due to the pandemic. Consequently, the trip’s focus shifted from developing a race piece to learning how to row. Sam Thompson ’23, who attended the preseason trip, also noted this dynamic, saying, “It was definitely a wake-up call to a lot of the rowers since our team is very new. It introduced a lot of us back to the water and some of us to the water.”
Two days after the end of the Girls’ and Boys’ Crew preseason trip, 35 members of the Boys’ Lacrosse team arrived at the brand-new Legacy Sports Complex in Mesa, Arizona. According to the Head Coach of Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse Mr. Ethan McDonnell ’09, the facility, which boasts around 30 turf fields, is the future home of U.S. Olympic Trials and NFL Combine Day. Heading into preseason, Mr. McDonnell had three main goals: learning schemes, tactics, and terminology, developing a team identity, and team bonding. Trilogy Lacrosse, a program run by two former professional Hall of Fame players, provided additional coaching.
Like the crew teams, Boys’ Lacrosse had multiple practices each day, typically with the first practice in the morning and the last after dinner. Outside of practice, players participated in stretching and yoga, went to Topgolf, and hiked to the Hole in the Rock in Papago Park. Additionally, the team played in two scrimmages against Andover and Blair. For Mr. McDonnell, “another highlight was developing an identity. We are a really tough team that stands up for each other — that plays with a lot of energy.” Similarly, Alex Krusko ’24 reflected, “I think that with a good hard preseason that we had, it’s going to give us a little bit of grit, a little bit of trust in each other that we wouldn’t have had without it.”
