After strong start men’s lacrosse looks past cancellations

The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team is reduced to bodyweight workouts while in quarantine in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. 

With modified workout packets given to the team by strength and conditioning coach Eric Markovcy, players can work around the lack of gym accessibility. 

Sophomore defender Judah Hicks said he does push-ups and utilizes the few dumbbells he has in his house, doing the best he can to stay in shape. 

The team’s promising 5-1 start now seems like a distant memory, although the players were still in action just four weeks ago.

Players and coaches had high hopes for what they could have accomplished in the rest of the season, but have since been left wondering what could have been. 

“We felt like we were just starting to hit our stride just a little bit,” said associate head coach Will Scudder. “We had a couple of bumpy games earlier on in the season and were kind of starting to gel a little bit.” 

The players felt 2020 had the makings of a championship season. 

Senior defensive midfielder Erik DiGirolamo and Hicks both said after finishing in second place the past two seasons, they thought this was the year to finally get over that hump. 

“The first goal that was on all our minds was winning the Patriot League Championship, especially after having lost there the past two years, so we were really hungry to win that,” Hicks said. 

DiGirolamo echoed a similar message and said the team’s goal is always to come away with a league title.

“It’s tough to at least have a good start and know that there was potential to reach that goal, and not be able to pursue it in the end,” DiGirolamo said.

DiGirolamo is one of 11 seniors on this year’s team who will be faced with deciding whether or not to return for a fifth season.

The NCAA agreed to grant all spring season athletes the opportunity to make up this lost season of eligibility, leaving the door open for seniors to return for another season. But, for many seniors, the decision proves much more difficult than simply wanting to continue playing.

“It’s definitely a tough decision for all of us,” DiGirolamo said. “All of us have different situations, especially with future jobs. I already accepted a job so that would be another thing to take into consideration, but I’m definitely not crossing it totally off the list.”

DiGirolamo said there is about a 50 percent split between seniors who already have post-grad plans, and those who are still unsure what their futures hold. 

He said the extra year would be a great opportunity for those who have uncertainties to try and figure it out while still at school and playing the game they love. But everybody’s situation is different, and only time will tell what everyone decides to do, he said.

However, the current period of quarantine has bigger implications on the future of the Lehigh lacrosse program outside of the seniors returning. 

There is a question of what happens with recruiting because of the loss of the spring and, possibly, summer seasons for high schoolers. 

“This is obviously a really important time for juniors… This is a big time for those kids to kind of really stand out and kind of break out, so to speak,” Scudder said. “A lot of kids are going to lose that opportunity.”

With six players already committed to enrolling at Lehigh in 2021, the coaching staff has several individuals to build around, but would like to add roughly five players more to the class, Scudder said.

The pandemic limits the level of recruiting that can be done. 

“One, we’re not going to be able to go out and see them, and two, they’re not going to have any tape for us to watch,” Scudder said. 

The coaches will be restricted to notes and recommendations from high school coaches, which can produce positive results but isn’t as thorough as the typical recruiting process, Scudder said.