5/10/2012 - West Side Leader
     

AKRON — The Archbishop Hoban boys lacrosse team started the season with a six-game losing streak, followed by a seven-game winning streak and then a two-game losing streak. Head coach Danny Clem said he is looking for his team to show more consistency from this point forward.

“We have flashes of brilliance and then periods of bad play,” he said. “We started out very rough but have been improving vastly.”

Last season, the team finished 8-9 overall and made it to the second round of the playoffs. Through May 8 of this year, Hoban’s overall record was 7-8.

Clem said this year’s squad features “a good mix of both” young players and experienced players.

“We have a few freshmen and sophomores that start, but we have a lot of seniors,” he said. “But I would not call them veterans because a lot of the seniors are first- or second-year players.”

The seniors on the team this season are: Jimmy Zazo, Jimmy Bott, Alex Fuss, Joey Reeves, Brian Atwood, Victor Pereira, Dom Mondello, Pat Carabin, Giovanni Palmiero, Evan Horvath, Daniel Balogh, Sam Stitzel and David Scarpitti.

“We have some great kids,” Clem said. “We had a rough start in the early part of the year, but the seniors showed some great leadership and helped us string together some good wins. They are a very close-knit group that really enjoy playing with each other.”

Clem said the strength of this year’s squad has been the play of Zazo, Bott, Fuss and Reeves, the team captains.

“I would say our main strength is our captains,” he said. “The captains play a huge role on the team. They lead all of the stretching and most drills that we do in practice. They also help in keeping the team in line and making sure everything is collected, put away and our locker room and bus are kept clean. They also have input in what types of things we will be doing in practice in a given week.”

Two other key contributors this season, Clem said, have been Brian McMahon and Mike Jenkins.

“We have two great players in junior Brian McMahon and sophomore Mike Jenkins,” the coach said. “Both are two-year starters, and they are two very important contributors.”

The defense, Clem said, has been a strong point for the team.

“We returned two of our three starting long poles from last year. We had a difficult start because we were breaking in a brand new goalie, but we have seemed to hit our stride,” he stated. “We have some very talented individuals on defense and attack, and those players make us very formidable.”

Clem said the team’s offense is “improving.”

“It’s a work in progress, but we have had very well-balanced scoring this year, and every one is contributing,” he said. “We have improved in every aspect of the game since the season started. Since we had so many new players on varsity, we had a steep learning curve. With every game, our offense, defense, transition — everything — is getting dramatically better.”

Clem is in his second year as the team’s coach. His staff is comprised of assistant coaches Brian Reilly and Dom Anders.

“[Our goal is] to continue to develop like we have been doing and make a deep playoff run,” Clem said.

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