In all the years Dartmouth has had a lacrosse team, expectations have never been so high entering into a season. The team is coming off its first NCAA Tournament berth and notched the most wins in school history since 1948.
The Big Green had a busy offseason, with the main news coming from a change at the top. Last year's head coach Rick Sowell left to become the Head Coach of Saint John's lacrosse team. Sowell made the change before all the problems with Saint John's basketball team had surfaced.
Soon after, Cornell assistant coach and defensive coordinator Bill Wilson was named Dartmouth head coach. Wilson played his college days for Princeton, where he was part of their 1996 National title team.
I asked Adam White '05 what changes could be felt by the change of head coach. White said, "I think the biggest thing that's changed is the team's attitude. Coach Wilson has really emphasized team unity and it's resulted in bringing an already tight-knit group of guys even closer."
Also in the offseason, the team had five players named pre-season All-Americans by Inside College Lacrosse magazine. Ben Grinnell '05, Pat Keeley '05 and Andrew Goldstein '05 were all named second team All-Americans while Tom Daniels '04 was named to third team, and Jamie Coffin '06 was selected as Honorable Mention. The team also received a preseason No. 20 rank nationally.
White thought that the No. 20 rank was low after all the success the Big Green had last year.
"I don't think there's any question that every guy on the team thinks we deserve to be ranked higher than 20," White said. "We finished last season much higher and we're not losing much talent. But I think it's good that we're still not getting much respect. It will keep us hungry.
The past two weeks have been a tuneup for the Big Green with scrimmages against Skidmore and UMass.
"Skidmore was a good opportunity to run our systems against another squad, but they really weren't ready to give us a good test and allow us to gauge where we were as a team," White said. "We looked flat and uninspired in the beginning of the UMass scrimmage but we got progressively stronger and kept battling."
"The scrimmages were a good way to play against another color, but they really have a different atmosphere than a game," Jesse Klempner '05 added. "We looked good. We have a lot of things to work on, but we are improving."
This weekend, the Big Green travels down to Maryland to face off against No. 14 Rutgers. Klempner had this to say about the game: "Rutgers is obviously huge because it can set the tone for the year. It is the first game so it is on us to come out and perform."
The games after Rutgers do not get much easier as Dartmouth faces off against five other preseason top 25 teams. Big games will be against No. 25 Harvard, No. 22 Yale, No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 12 Cornell and No. 4 Princeton.
Dartmouth has its work cut out for itself with a tough schedule and the fact that the team will not be able to surprise teams like it did last year. However, this year's team has a ton of talent and anything less than another NCAA Tournament berth would be a disappointment. The first home game is March 6, 2:30 p.m., against Colgate.
