No, the Londonderry High School varsity boys’ lacrosse team’s 2017 season didn’t wind up exactly as the Lancers would have liked. But, based upon the post-season awards handed out by the Division I coaches recently, everybody knew that the LHS crew had all kinds of talent and great leadership and was a power with which to be reckoned.
The Londonderry team had three players receive First-Team All-State recognition, three others garner Second-Team All-State honors, and coach Sean LeBlanc get named Division I Coach of the Year.
The Lancers had three of their departing seniors – attack Sean Snyder, midfielder Pete Navarro, and face-off specialist and middie Tyler Grant – nab First-Team honors, and senior middie Brandyn Proulx, junior defender Corey Hicks, and sophomore middie Jake Holland get named second-teamers. Grant also recently learned that he had won coveted Brine All-American honors.
Coach of the Year LeBlanc had his Lancers collect the third seed in tough Division I with a 13-3 regular season which featured a 5-1 start, a small skid in going 1-2 in the three matches after that, followed by a superb seven-game winning streak to close out the regular campaign.
But, Londonderry’s determined drive for a state championship ended in the tournament quarterfinals with an upset loss at the hands of the visiting, sixth-seeded Exeter High Blue Hawks, who edged the locals by a 7-6 score.
Exeter, which then went on to get hammered by the second-seeded, eventual state champions Bishop Guertin of Nashua in the D-I semifinals, dropped decisions of 9-8 and 13-9 to Londonderry during the regular season.
Regarding the Brine All-American award which Brewster Academy-bound Tyler Grant received, coach LeBlanc gave plenty of credit where it’s certainly due.
“This is a great accomplishment for Tyler,” said the coach. “Tyler is one of the most focused lacrosse players I have ever coached. His work ethic and attention to detail are second to none, and that’s why he has had so much success this year. A few years ago, Tyler decided he wanted to be a dominant face-off guy, and through his hard work that’s exactly what he has become.”
In receiving the Brine honor, Grant will get to represent the New England region by playing in the 2017 National Lacrosse Classic at the River City Sportsplex in Richmond, VA, in mid-July.
That national event is a first-of-its-kind lacrosse experience created to provide lacrosse athletes with a competitive process to benchmark their skills and athleticism, qualify for selection to represent their state in a national tournament, and gain recognition by competing in front of NCAA lax coaches.