The SNHU men’s lacrosse team has been preparing for their 2022 season, in which they opened with a loss against Saint Anselm College 13-21 on Saturday, March 12.
Head coach Paul Calkins and captain Nolan Isabella (’21) spoke on the preparation that went into this season and what the team is expecting of themselves. Calkins emphasized that the early start to the season will be beneficial, and explained that it is an advantage.
“Preparation has been pretty good,” said Calkins. “It has been a long run for us because we started pre-season a little bit early. We’ve had a lot of young guys that missed out on the fall. All the sophomore guys only had a spring season. Now that we have a full season this year, it’s going to be super beneficial for us starting pre-season early.”
Calkins has high expectations that include ending the season high in the rankings before the NE10 tournament.
“The [only] step is forward coming into this season, and we expect to get to that conference tournament and to be in the top four best teams of this conference. That’s our goal,” said Calkins.
Captain Nolan Isabella is confident that the team is going to push its limits and show how they’ve improved from last season.
“We, as a team, are looking forward to proving [everyone] wrong in this conference… and the way we do that is one game and one practice at a time. We’re very excited to show a lot of people what we can do and how much we improved from last season,” said Isabella.
Isabella believes that the team has a newfound mentality that will allow them to reach the goals they have set out to accomplish. The proper mindset may just be the one missing piece that the team needs for an even more successful season than the last.
“This team has a different mentality; we have common goals [and] we always have each other’s backs,” said Isabella. “This separates us from other teams.”
