SACO – After a perfect season and capturing their first Class A South regional title, The Thornton Academy boy’s lacrosse team went on to beat Falmouth 14-12 in a back and forth battle to claim their first Class A state title.
This year, Thornton Academy head coach Ryan Hersey and the Golden Trojans have their sights set on getting the team back together.
“I always tell the kids, ‘our goal is to get better every day, get better every week.’ Hopefully we’ll be playing our best lacrosse come June, that’s our goal. Wins and losses take care of themselves. It would be great to win a state championship but really you have to do that by getting better on a daily basis,” said Hersey.
Senior CJ Labreck agreed with his coach.
“I feel like the big picture is the state championship but it’s also coming out and getting better every single day. Making sure that we’re getting each other better and not only ourselves but that we’re helping our coaches and we’re helping each other as a family,” said Labreck.
The team lost 10 seniors to graduation, but the Golden Trojans believe they can reload this season.
“We lost 10 guys and so we are going to try to stay humble and try to start at the beginning again knowing that this is a brand-new team. We’re going to have different strengths, different weaknesses and it’s kind of like a different puzzle that we’re putting together,” said Hersey. “But we’ll also try to do some of the same things that we did last year too, big time. We’ve got some good ones coming up here but I think it’s going to take a little while for us to gel like we did last year.”
Senior goalkeeper Ean Patry echoed his coach.
“We’ve a bunch of new guys coming into the team, definitely a lot of potential and definitely really hard working. We’re looking to take last year’s mentality and repeat it again and hopefully have the same result,” said Patry.
Hersey will rely heavily on Labreck, Patry and the senior class to win another championship title.
“We have CJ Labreck, he was an All-American from last year and now he’s back. Tom Levasseur, Ean Patry, (who’s) our goalie, Eli Arsenault and the rest of the senior class we’re going to put it on them to lead the way,” said Hersey.
Thornton Academy will travel to Gorham for the season opener at 4:45 p.m. Thursday, April 18.
“Early season, we want to work hard. We want to just focus on the fundamentals. Hopefully through some of our scrimmages we can get the rust off but the first game, you’re always going to be a little nervous and a little apprehensive. But if we just focus on those team skills that’s going to help us get through,” said Hersey. “It should be a great year of lacrosse. I think there’s some really good programs in Class A and Class B so it should be a fun year.”
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.com or at 780-9018. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.