According to Jayme Wilde ’21, Assistant Captain Henry Roger ’19’s affability makes him an exemplary role model.
After picking up lacrosse for the first time in seventh grade and playing on JV for his first two years at Andover, Assistant Captain Henry Rogers ’19 earned a sport on Andover Boys Lacrosse as an Upper last year.
According to Rogers, he had only played lacrosse casually until he arrived at Andover, and up until his Upper year, didn’t plan on being Varsity.
“Larson Tolo [’18], who was my Proctor and also one of the Co-Captains last year, motivated me to try out for Varsity team and to try and get better to compete on the varsity level,” said Rogers.
Although Rogers’ primary athletic focus at Andover has been Andover Boys Soccer, of which he was Co-Captain of this fall, his teammates and the competition of lacrosse always keep him occupied and motivated during the season.
“My teammates are the reason why I love sports,” said Rogers. “Even though lacrosse is my second sport, and even though I’m definitely not the best player out there, I love being part of the team, the competitiveness, and the camaraderie that we have here.”
According to Jayme Wilde ’21, Rogers has really embraced his role as a motivational and skillful leader on the field.
“On the field, he’s excels at playing short-stick defense and he’s super reliable,” said Wilde. “We all know that whenever he has the ball, we can trust him to make big plays for us.”
Troy Pollock ’21 added, “He’s willing to do anything and he exceeds at everything he does. He’s gonna go out and prove people wrong, he’s always surprising people.”
According to Rogers, the key to successful teamwork is to constantly build relationships with teammates outside of lacrosse.
“We’ll hang out with each other after practice every day. We’ll eat dinner as a team after practices and eat breakfast before our Saturday games. It’s just all about hanging out with each other on and off the field to establish those connections so that when you do get on the field, you have the kind of chemistry you want to make the game go smoother,” said Rogers.
According to Wilde, Rogers’ attitude off the field exemplifies what a leader should be and his affability makes him an exemplary role model.
“He’s a really good person to hang out with. He’s always willing to hang out and talk so it’s a lot of fun to be able to have that kind of relationship with him,” said Wilde.
He continued, “He’s a great person to look up to because no matter what’s happening he’ll always be focused on the task at hand and be an example to the younger players.”
Despite some losses early in the season, Rogers believes that the team has great potential no matter what its record might say.
“We got a good win against Hotchkiss and we had two tough overtime losses. I think in those two overtime games, it was super disappointing, but I think there were a lot of good things to be noted there. Taking the games into overtime showed a lot of grit on our part, and we were unlucky to not get the results we wanted. But we need to make sure to have as many wins as we can and that we just grind out those close games,” said Rogers.
