Stiff competition and a young team have led to a 4-4 record so far for the Pioneer Lacrosse club with just a few games left heading into the bracket championships. The team will be playing in the B bracket this year but with a young team, the team leaders believe the best is yet to come for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers are a part of the Great Lakes Lacrosse League and are currently ranked No. 7 out of the 38 teams according to laxpower.com. They are fourth in their division that features the top three ranked teams in the entire league.
They have had to play some very tough competition, such as the Univerity of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Marquette’s club teams so their record does not show how good the team is.
“We play against some of the best teams in our league when playing in our division,” team captain Tony Burant said. “Madison’s two teams and Marquette are all very tough teams to beat which makes for a tough schedule when they are all in our division.”
Burant said that the Pioneers need to work on getting rid of their mental mistakes with the bracket championship coming up.
“We should be one of the best teams in the B bracket championship and will be very tough to beat,” said Burant. “We could have had a chance to do well in the A bracket as well but we will be a very good team in the B bracket.”
Team member Jack Penglase agreed that the team has some things to work on with the biggest thing being teamwork.
“We need to play more as a team and really have to trust one another during our games,” Penglase said. “We have a tendency to get down on one another and need to be more positive towards each other in the middle of our games.”
The Pioneers also did very well for not having an official coach unlike the other teams in their league. Zach Russell, who is both a player and head coach, does a great job for the team even though he does not get to analyze the game from the sideline. Russell has years of experience playing and coaching lacrosse and he knows what to do to help the team reach its full potential.
No matter how the season ends for the Pioneers, they have a lot to look forward to next year. They are a young team and only two or three players will graduate after this season.
“We had one of the largest freshmen classes that we have had this past year and only hope for that to continue next year,” team member Peter Eischen said. “That means that we will only be better next year and continue to grow as a team.”