Lacrosse alumni game a success for new and old
10/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team held its alumni game this past weekend for the first time under new head coach Kevin Cassese.
“These events are very important because they are the life of your program,” Cassese said. “You want to be able to have alums feel good about their legacy, you want to have current players who are aware of the legacy, and this is the way you do it.”
Cassese split the former players into teams based on graduating year, pitting the odd years against the even years. The current freshmen played with the evens and the current sophomores played with the odds. Teams kept score throughout the game, but in the end it did not really matter.
“I do not know the final score and I do not think it mattered to any of the guys,” Cassese said. “Everyone had a good time.”
Michael Loughran ’90 said he has now played in seven alumni games since his graduation and enjoys each trip back to his alma mater.
“I think this event is great,” Loughran said. “A lot of the guys have similar interests and it is a good time to talk with kids from different generations and try to catch up on things. I get to meet the new kids and see where their heads are, and I also get to catch up with some of my classmates.”
Loughran believes that the lacrosse program as a whole has made great strides since 1990, becoming more competitive and organized.
“They definitely take it more seriously now and it is more structured,” Loughran said. “When we played here, there were a lot of good players and we were very competitive, but we lacked structure. But in many ways, the program has stayed the same.”
John Herd ’87, now a social studies teacher at Conestoga High School, made his sixth alumni game appearance over the weekend. Herd reminisced about his time at Lehigh and believes that the program is headed in a positive direction.
“It was a lot of fun when I played here,” Herd said. “We played in Taylor Stadium, which was a neat place to play right on campus. We had a small team of only about 20 of us, but we did well.”
Herd was most impressed with the increased skill level of the current players.
“These players now are excellent. They are a lot better than we were, except for maybe a few of our best guys.”
Overall, Cassese was happy about one of his first events as head coach.
“I thought the game was terrific,” Cassese said. “The most important part of an alumni game is having the alumni come back, play, and relive the glory days a little bit. More so, they get to interact with our current team members. That was certainly achieved today.”
Story by Kylan McQuaig ’08, Lehigh Sports Media Relations
