Alumni Weekend Recap

This past Saturday, October 5th the Oswego State Men's Lacrosse team hosted their 37th annual alumni weekend. The alumni team featured former SUNYAC all- conference players such as Mike Recor '09, Mike Brewster '09, Dan Rogers '09, Eric Zerrahn '11, Eric Miccio '12 Ian O'Brien '12 and Britton Leone '12. Like most alumni games, the ex-Lakers were more focused on celebrating Friday night than preparing for Saturday morning's game. All the same, the alumni had put together a competitive roster that was sure to test the Oswego Lakers on this beautiful October morning. A 6-3 half time lead quickly developed into a 20-6 blowout in favor of the young guns. Stamina proved to be a gigantic factor in the game, as the out of shape alumni failed to keep up with the well conditioned varsity team. Assistant coach Kyle DeRosa was kind enough to sit down with me, and discuss what the coaching staff was looking to get out of this event.

What were your overall thoughts on this year's alumni game?

"I thought we played well, it's always good to see someone else across the ball from us. Obviously the alumni are here to have fun but we take the game very seriously. It's an opportunity for us to get better and I think we did that today."

What was the coaching staff looking to see from the Varsity team in this game? What were you hoping to gain?

"Fundamentals and hustle are what we're looking for at this point. We barely have two weeks of practice under our belt, hard work is all we're looking for right now and that's how we're going to get better. So far we've only implemented a couple basic motion offense's and a couple simple defensive packages. It's still so early in the season we've got a lot of time to work out the details, for now we just want to get the new guys comfortable so we can eventually grow as a team."

Did any particular players stand out?

"I thought Matt Palmer played terrific. We're giving him the added responsibility of taking some face offs for us this year and he's performed great so far both in practice and especially the alumni game.  With his athleticism, he's the type of guy you want on the field regardless of where it is. Matt had an outstanding Freshman year in 2011 at midfield, and didn't see as much time this past season. You can tell he's coming into his Junior year with something to prove."

What do you guys need to work on to prepare for the Nazareth scrimmage, and more importantly the Spring?

"Like I said earlier, fundamentals and hustle are what we're focused on for the Fall. We'll work on the X's and O's when we have to, but for now it's hard work that's going to bring these guys together as a team and build their chemistry. Nazareth is a first class program, but we're concerned about ourselves. For the first time a few years, we've got a very experienced team at all positions. These guys have been producing for us since they were Freshman, they know what's expected of them. Everybody's excited about this season, but it's the work we put in during the Fall that's going to get us there."