A home built on past success

New-look Calverton looks to defend Veterans Field, legacy of winning

Friday, March 16, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel Calverton’s Steven Smith works around a Paul VI defender in the first quarter of a scrimmage Tuesday. The Cougars fell behind early and lost 11-9. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin WEigel Calverton’s Sean Harding, left, goes after a loose ball vs. Paul VI.

The Calverton School Cougars, led by a large nucleus of college-bound lacrosse players who came up through the ranks together, were largely dominant in the Maryland Independent Lacrosse League. The team took care of business in its own back yard, as well, consistently knocking off its public school neighbors when given the opportunity.

Those days, at least for the time being, are over.

‘‘This year is going to be interesting,” Calverton coach Jonathan Montes said. ‘‘This is a rebuilding year for The Calverton School.”

The Cougars, unbeaten in MILL play the past three regular seasons and the winners of the past two MILL tournaments, graduated eight starters from last year’s championship team. Only seniors Ryan Hutchins and Mark Posey and junior Noah Weaver return from last year’s starting lineup.

‘‘It’s definitely hard,” said Weaver, a defenseman. ‘‘I think we only have three returning starters. After all the seniors we had last year, it’s hard to rebuild.”

Hutchins added: ‘‘It’s tough coming out because we lost a lot of guys last year. But I feel we’re more of a team this year. It’s entirely a team effort.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Cougars officially opened their new home field, the spacious Veterans Field, in a scrimmage against Paul VI. Calverton played the role of the hospitable host early by giving up a few goals to fall behind in the first quarter and while it played even with the WCAC opponent the rest of the way lost an 11-9 decision.

‘‘Today we didn’t come out with a lot of intensity, didn’t get fired up,” Hutchins said after the game. ‘‘We need to get ourselves fired up.

‘‘We should be fired up any game. You come out to play the game with passion. We weren’t really feeling it. It felt like no one really desired it. We really need to step that up.”

Weaver echoed his teammate’s sentiments.

‘‘We definitely have to get more intense,” he said. ‘‘We weren’t nearly as intense as we should have been coming out here. We don’t have the firepower we did last year to come back from those four-goal deficits.”

Last year’s nucleus, and the punch it provided, may be gone. But Montes still sees plenty of talent on his squad. At his point, most of it is just lacking in experience, he says.

‘‘We have a lot of young talent,” Montes said, ‘‘but as with all young talent, we expect them to make mistakes.

‘‘When you’re dealing with youth mistakes are going to happen. Limiting the mistakes is our top priority.”

The Cougars say they will try to make sure they get back to defending their own turf.

‘‘It’s a big deal to all these guys,” Hutchins said. ‘‘It’s new ground to everyone coming out here. It’s tough losing.”

‘‘We were fired up because it was the first game on this field,” Weaver said. ‘‘We had a pretty good fan showing, too. It’s upsetting that we had to come out and play like this, to give up a four-goal lead right away.”

‘‘What we always say is we want to win all of our home games,” Montes said. ‘‘Calvert County is our home territory and we don’t want to lose here.”

E-mail Andy States at astates@somdnews.com.