Building a succesful team with “We Not Me”

DSHS LACROSSE

“We Not Me,” is the mot - to for the D ripping Springs High School (DSHS) Bo ys Lacrosse Team; and to hear team head coach B ill Cafferata say it, “unity” the reason for the team’s strong fi - ish this season.

“Our biggest motto for the year was ‘we not me’ [It helped us] build a ‘team culture’ over an individual cul - ture,” Cafferata said. “The culture [last y ear] was less than ideal because it was more individualistic. Thee were more guys that wanted to be ‘the guy’ and there was some in fighting - it was ’t a very good team cultur e. But this year, we had such a great team unity - it ’s better than anything I’ve ever seen be - fore and I r eally think that’s where a lot of our success is coming from.”

As a “successful “ team, the DSHS Boys Lacrosse Team is known for producing strong lacrosse players with an eye for the future, such as 2017 graduate Tanner Heinchon who is no w playing lacr osse at Canisius College, a NCAA Division 1 school.

For this ending year, graduating seniors Connor J amail and Gabe Reno will both be continuing their lacrosse careers in college. J amail will be playing at University of Massachusetts Lowell, another NCAA D ivision 1 and Reno will be playing at Cleveland State.

Other team members have similar ambitions of con - tinuing college play. Charles Pouland, a sophomor e and midfield player, has high as pirations for collegiate pursuit of the game. “My top three choices for schools right now to play lacr osse at ar e Vermont University, St. Bonaventure University in New York and Palm Beach Atlantic in F lorida,” Pouland said.

Pouland just transferr ed from Maryland where lacrosse is vie wed very diffe ently than in the south. “My mom likes to say it’s like football here, it’s definitely p eached up there,” Pouland said.

Despite lacrosse not being “preached” of in the south, DSHS Lacrosse has built a flou - ishing program; and has pr oduced a note - worthy Division 1 team that has made it to the super state region.

Mainly a popular in the northeast, lacrosse is a combination of the strategy of basketball and the physicality of hockey. “The most i - portant thing to know about lacrosse is that it is the oldest spor t in America,” Cafferata said. “It was played by the Native Americans before anybody even came here. Lacrosse was actually a way where they trained their tribe for war, [and some] wars between the Native Americans in the northeast would be a game of lacrosse that were very physical and sometimes to the death.”

Continuing the sport that is hundreds of years old, the 2018 DSHS Lacr osse Team leads as one of the youngest programs in the state. The DSHS p ogram is only eight to nine years old. C urrently, DSHS Bo ys Lacrosse has 54 play ers with 29 on the v arsity player roster, and about 25 on the junior varsity team.

The team’s player pipeline also seems

strong. “We have 13 sophomores that are on our varsity roster, and we have six graduating seniors, and we’ll bring in another crop of freshman,” Cafferata said. “We’re so young that this year, all the success w e’ve had with a group of such young guys is pretty remarkable and w e have a r eally solid junior class who will be seniors next y ear. We just want to go one step further each year and I just expect that through more experience we’ll just be that much better.”

As the year ends, Cafferata is understan - ably proud of his team’s achievement. After making it to state as a D ivision 1 team, the varsity boys finished the season as nu - ber eight in the state with their final game against Episcopal School of D allas with an ending score of 14-7.

As lacrosse is not as popular in Texas as it may be in the northeast, Cafferata does ’t ask for funding or supplies from the community, he simply asks for mor e support for the la - crosse players

“The biggest thing we need from the community is support, we’d love to get more people at our games, we’d love to have more kids play at the y outh level-- and just r eally getting more people involved in the sport would be really great,” Cafferata said