Baler boys lacrosse searching for first win

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High school lacrosse is a Frankenstein combination of soccer, tennis and full-contact football. The games are fast, intense and frequently brutal. Players take hits that would be banned in other sports.

It takes a great deal of determination and grit for a team like Hollister High’s to go up against a superior team like Monterey’s Stevenson High School when faced with a likely eighth straight defeat. The game’s final score was 5-18.

Several factors held the team back this year. One was a serious loss in experienced players as seniors graduated off the team in double digits. Another was the hiring of a new coach, Brett Davis, who didn’t get a chance to meet his team until shortly before the season began in February. And it didn’t help that the team had moved up a division this year based on their ending third in the league last year.

“Our first game was within two weeks of tryouts,” Davis said. “These guys have never really had the opportunity to have an off-season. With any sport, you can’t drop it for eight months and then come back into it. So the biggest challenge was just getting the guys back out there.”

Davis had seven years’ experience coaching lacrosse in Los Angeles before coming to Hollister. He said the players very quickly embraced and supported him.

“They’ve been very adaptable,” he said. “There was no pushback from the guys, and the families have been great. I just wish there had been more time with them before we started playing.”

The Balers’ back-to-back losses to the Stevenson Pirates, with a final match-up on April 8, left them with a 0-9 record so far this season. With just five games left in the season—three of which are against opponents who have already decisively beaten them—things aren’t looking up. But none of that seemed to bother the players as they put every scrap of energy into every minute of that game, fighting hard and refusing to accept defeat until the last buzzer sounded. 

“We lost a lot of key players,” said senior Theo Meredith. “But our team has a tight bond, and we’re all friends. We can still enjoy the game even when we are losing. The losses can take a toll on us, but we’re never angry with each other.”

Meredith said that losing so many players last year has left the team without as much playing IQ, which they have been adjusting to all season.

“First, we had to figure out who was going to play offense or defense and who was going to be goalie,” he said. “We lost a lot of offensive weapons, but I think the biggest issue was that we didn’t have an off-season. But we are coming around, and I think we will end up on a high note.”

The Balers will also face a difficult season next year, as they return minus 17 graduating seniors.

“What keeps me going is the fact that we still have some talented dudes here,” Davis said. “And I have some good groups coming in. We are going to be a young team next year, and it will be a complete reset.”

Davis said he is very lucky to have a secret weapon: the Hollister Hawgs youth lacrosse program, which acts as his feeder team.

“You get kids coming up to the high school level who’ve been playing anywhere from one to seven years,” he said. “It makes all the difference in the world in not having to teach brand new guys the game and get them up to speed. So the Hawgs are the biggest blessing ever.”

Davis said he is trying to get to as many Hawgs games as possible and has talked to the players and their parents in hopes they will join the team one day.

“I don’t want them to see a stranger once they get to high school,” he said. “I want them to know who they’re playing for once they get here. We hosted them here for one of their home games, and I had my team cheering them on. I hope we can do more of that in the future.”

Freshman Bradley Cooper is one of those former Hawgs, following in the footsteps of older brother Troy, who also played for Hollister. He is optimistic about next season, when the team will once more have to reinvent itself.

“In my opinion,” he said, “that’s an opportunity for the freshmen and sophomores to step up, fill in spots, work hard on the stick skills and listen to the coach. I truly believe that if my team just puts in the effort, we will stand a chance against any team that wants to play us.”

The Balers have five games left in the season, with away games scheduled against Palma, Salinas, Christopher and Los Gatos high schools. Their one remaining home game, the Homecoming game, is April 22 at 5 p.m.

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