Sage Loses to Dana Hills High School: 13-6

With less than one week of practice with the full team, Sage Hill took on a ranked team at Dana Hills on March 6. Despite the score, the game was actually closer than indicated. Sage started out strong scoring within the first 7 seconds on a great fast break from the opening face off by Max Ellison to Brendan "Killer" Killaly. My expectation is that this one play perhaps will set the tone for the rest of the season - good team play resulting in success. In fact, the hustle and "we won't quit" attitude of the team carried over to the second half of the game. I was very proud of these young men. They could have laid down and quit, but they didn't.

Since I'm new to Sage as the head coach, I did not know what to expect in terms of student participation. I knew Sage was in their second year of the program and was remotely familiar with their team last year. However I was extremely pleased to see the effort and dedication in the practices that took place before we had our full team assembled. We have many new kids to the sport, and during practice they demonstrated a willingness to learn and adapt. Those young men include: Conner Ascher, David Fenner, Asher Sefami, Kabir Grewal, Ford Hanour, Brandon Rayhaun, Jack Markman, and Oliver Tomson. I look to these young men as the future of the lacrosse program at Sage. With each passing week, they are improving.

Also joining us for practice are returning veterans Sammy Witte, Max Potkin, Brendan Killaly, Alex Raymond, Justin Barbour, TJ Danner, Sam Simon, Maosen Ye, Michael Ramming, as well as newcomers Frank Shapiro and Alec Van Hoogenstyn, both of whom have played competitive lacrosse.

Rounding out the roster once the soccer season ended are Max Ellison, Mark Milner, and newcomers Drew Wheeler and Craig Jackson. Finally, Griffin Davis recently joined us. All of these young men are very good athletes and it shows on the lacrosse field.

This is our team for the 2009 season and I encourage the Sage faithful to come out to support these young men. They are a great group to coach and I, along with Chris Marshall, our assistant coach, am looking forward to a very good and successful season.