LYNN — When you look at the 4-12 record the Lynn Jets lacrosse team had at the end of the 2018 season, you’d think the team struggled to compete. But the Jets actually hung tough and played most of their opponents close. A few bad bounces here and there turned potential victories into losses, and Lynn’s state tournament hopes were dashed quickly.
“It was an okay year,” Jets coach Peter Pappagianopoulos, entering his eighth season, said. “We were competitive in most games. We just didn’t have the ability to finish games the way it needed to be done. We had a great senior class that worked hard all season but the wins and losses didn’t end up the way we wanted.”
Lynn graduated 12 seniors from last year’s team, including Mike Clougherty and Quinn Brinkler. This year’s roster is younger than last season’s, meaning the Jets will rely on their seniors to lead the way.
Returning in the midfield are seniors Brian Clougherty and Jack Gallant. Clougherty and Gallant were utilized primarily as defensemen last season.
“Brian’s probably one of our better shooters,” Pappagianopoulos said. “We need to get him on the field more. He’s more comfortable with the long stick but this year we’re moving him to short stick to try and get more offense. That was one of our problems last year. We couldn’t keep up with other teams.
“Jack missed the second half of last season with an injury,” Pappagianopoulos said. “It’ll be good to have him back with us for a full season.”
Senior Gustavo Delgado and Owen Downey are currently competing for the starting goaltender position. Delgado served as the backup goalie last season, while Downey’s moving from midfielder to goalie.
“Owen has only been a goaltender for about a week and a half,” Pappagianopoulos said. “He was a youth lacrosse player. He has good stick skills he’s just working on learning to be a goalie. Gustavo’s getting there. He’s never been a starting goalie. He was a backup last season. We’re starting with those two and we’ll see what happens over time.”
Sam Ennis returns to lead the attack.
This season’s co-captains are Clougherty, Ennis and Gallant.
“They’re great guys,” Pappagianopoulos said. “They’re there every day, they’re hard workers. We lost a lot of good guys but they’re helping fill the voids. They’re upbeat, they’re positive guys and they understand that we have a lot of new players this year. They’re stepping up and teaching them the game to get them ready. We have some freshmen and sophomores who’ll play some minutes because we graduated quite a bit.
“They’re a good group of kids,” Pappagianopoulos said. “We have some good upperclassmen, some good captains who are taking those roles as good leaders on the team. We have a good core returning and now we’re just looking to fill some voids with the new guys to fill the roster.”
Although things have gone well for Lynn during the preseason, Pappagianopulous said numbers are down for the program. That makes it all the more important for Lynn’s underclassmen to step into vacant roles at the varsity level.
“Our biggest problem is our numbers are down this year,” Pappagianopoulos said. “We’ve been as high as 60 a couple years ago and now we’re down to the low 30’s this year. We have a lot of graduations and players not returning to the team. We have voids we need to fill. Young guys are stepping up to get ready for the season.”
Lynn opens the season next Monday afternoon (4) when the Jets visit Northeastern Conference rival Saugus at Stackpole Field.
“The team’s excited,” Pappagianopoulos said. “It was great that this is the first year that we’ve been outside from day one. With all the snow we got last year we were on the field for maybe two or three days before our first game. They’re excited for the upcoming season. They’re ready to play against guys other than their own teammates. They’re ready to progress.”
