Out with the Old, In with the New

Sydney Brown, Reporter
March 13, 2012
Filed under Sports

Bishop Gorman’s clubs, sports, and academics are undergoing many momentous changes this year, and the lacrosse program is no exception. A new lacrosse coaching staff is turning the program upside down with a fresh outlook and even more motivation to win in this upcoming season. Tod Lower, varsity attackman at Penn State, is a great addition to the Bishop Gorman Lacrosse community. His accolades include experience since sixth grade, All-State honors in high school, and a 55-goal season as a senior to set the state record. His passion for the game and his love of being a positive role model for younger players pushed Tod to transition from player to coach.

The last time the men’s varsity lacrosse team at Bishop Gorman won the State Championship was in 2010 in Division 2; now the team is in the Division 1 league, which is a big accomplishment in itself. The 2012 team has great aspirations to win state this year and beat our natural rival–Palo Verde. Chase Pollick (‘13), the midfielder for the BGHS varsity lacrosse team, mentions the improving factors of the team are due to the  “…new coaching staff and the players pushing themselves to achieve a lot more this year than ever before.”  Pollick has been a leading contributor to the Bishop Gorman Lacrosse team as a three-year starter, being named Attackmen of the Year, and playing on an all-star team.

The JV and Varsity teams practice six times a week for two hours after school and on Saturday. Their workouts include conditioning, working on better stick skills, and learning how to play as a whole team.  Coach Tod has the boys train on the off-season for endurance and has put together a training regime in the weight room for 12 months out of the year in order to be in tip-top shape for when they start playing in competitive games.

In addition to the new coaching staff, the lacrosse team also has a new motto–“Believe”–which is plastered on a variety of lacrosse spirit wear and bracelets as well as a new lacrosse logo. Coach Tod said,  “Re-branding the logo gives ourselves our own identity because we are excited for the future with the growth of the program at Bishop Gorman and in the Las Vegas area; it also gives us a whole new life to take us to the next level.” In addition, he stated that “believe” simply inspires to “…believe in yourselves, each other, and the coaching staff – then great things can happen.” Some returning varsity players wear lacrosse gear with the old logo on it along with the new logo. The symbolic meaning of the logos is, according to Coach Tod,  “Embracing the past with the old logo on some gear, and one cannot look ahead without looking back first.”

Coach Tod not only plans on helping the boys, but he has dreams for transforming the women’s lacrosse program as well. The women’s program is looking to improve this season as the new coaching staffs’  intentions are to work with them individually at their practices and creating a bond with the boys and girls to make a family out of the two programs. Pollick (‘13) said, “Everyone should come out to see some of our games because we are going to surprise people this year with our skills.” Students can see the teams swarm the field for the first games at home on Thursday, March 9th against Green Valley for the men and Thursday, March 15th against the Warriors for the women.

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