The lacrosse players noted their disappointment with the cancellation of last season, but expressed hope for this one.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
By and large, sports have not been played in six months. While professional athletes that have been playing for decades might not have a huge adjustment period, for high school athletes, there’s going to be a ton of rust to shake off - and some conditioning issues to work through. To make up for that, the track and fields around Dover-Sherborn have been laden with Raider athletes preparing for their respective upcoming seasons.
Soccer is the sport most quickly approaching, so it wasn’t surprising to run into a soccer player on Nora Searle Field so quickly. Thomas Lambert, who often goes by “Reggie” because some friends from Spain gave him the nickname, was kicking a ball at an empty net, but explained that working out by himself wasn’t something all that unique to the COVID era.
“I’ve been out here for a while, even before COVID," he said. "But at this point in the year, we’d have the season started already, so you really need to stay in shape by yourself, and sometimes with the team, but you can’t really get with them because of COVID.”
This year will be unique for reasons other than the late start date, as well. Teams are set to play each other twice a weekend, which will impact the strategies in noteworthy ways.
“We start the 26th with tryouts, and then first game is the tenth. We play two times a weekend - one home, one away - against the same teams. So it’s going to be interesting having to play them twice; you learn more in the first game for the second game. But I think we have a pretty good chance. Our group is looking pretty good - one of the better teams, in my opinion. I think, generally, we’re gong to have a good season in spite of the COVID.”
While soccer players have less time to shake off the rust, compared to spring athletes, there’s far less rust to shake off. Last year, the soccer team was able to finish its season. But with lacrosse being cancelled, those athletes have gone far longer without playing any games. To deal with that, Will Whittlesey, Charlie Perry, Cadence Tai, and Dillon Natale have been coming to the field to do some lacrosse drills three times a week.
The group pointed out that they felt the team had great momentum going into last season, which they hope can translate to this one. “We’ll be pretty good, I think,” they noted.
“After the championship two years ago, we were kind of going in hot. We’ve got some stored-up momentum.”
When it comes to sports you can play with a limited number of people, tennis is king. So for his part, Joshua Martinovitch explained that he and his fellow tennis team members are “not super rusty, since we’ve been playing quite a bit last summer, but we’re still not at the level we were before.”
“We’re just trying to get our old skill set back,” Cole Hadar added.
While the high school courts were locked up, the two said they often played at Caryl Park. But when asked what their thoughts were on the upcoming season in terms of a potential win-loss record, Hadar’s response was indicative of where sports, from youth to pro, currently stand.
“Hopefully it will happen. If it does, we should do well.”
