Just days after the Wilbraham & Monson Academy Boys' Lacrosse team completed its best season since 1991, Coach Mike MacDonald was named the Head Coach of the Year Award by the Western New England Scholastic Sports Lacrosse Association.
Remarkably, Coach MacDonald received all 12 votes for the honor.
"To hear the other coaches talk about our program and them seeing us turn the corner means a lot," said Coach MacDonald, who received the award May 22 at a league meeting. "We're bringing it all together. It's positive for our boys to get the exposure, but it's also great for our school to compete with the other top programs. We're right there knocking on the door. It's exciting for me as a coach and the boys should be excited because without their dedication and hard work, this isn't possible."
WMA finished the season 10-4, with all four of the losses coming by four goals or less.
"To see we are competing with the best ... we ended up having a huge win over Pomfret early," Coach MacDonald explained. "They're not in our league but they will be added in next year. No other team in our league beat them. We were the only team to beat them. That put us on the map and gave us some great exposure."
The Titans were led by their six seniors: Alexander Strange '17, Zach Mann '17, Tony Barbieri '17, Michael Kendall '17, Cam Curland '17 and Ryan McNeil '17. Alexander (Regis College), Zach (Mount St. Mary's University), Tony (University of Rochester), Cam (Drew University) and Ryan (Le Moyne College) will play lacrosse in college.
"Like I said at the sports awards ceremony, we started off with three of the seniors being captain, but during the season we ended up naming all of our seniors captains," Coach MacDonald said. "Their leadership and work ethic and intensity every day at practice fueled the team. It was contagious. All the kids bought in to what we were trying to do, and when you have a group of kids buy in and have that same common goal and are working hard, the sky's the limit."