Despite this being his first and only year at Andover, Post-Graduate Sal Lupoli ’19 was nominated as Assistant Captain upon earning a position on the team. Lupoli has played lacrosse for the past twelve years as a center midfielder, and first began playing in second grade after becoming bored with T-ball.
Lupoli said, “I just played T-ball, but I quickly realized that I wanted something a little more, so I decided to play lacrosse and I just fell in love with it. For me, I decided to [take a Post-Graduate year] because I definitely thought that I needed another year of school to get ready for college, but also for sports like football and lacrosse—just having another year to get bigger, faster, and stronger.”
Lupoli is known for being a selfless teammate and putting the needs of the team first, according to Jon Krikorian ’21 and Captain Sawyer Moody ’19.
Krikorian said, “He works well with the other captains, especially because he is a big Non Sibi guy. He’s all about joining, and he never making any decisions on his own. He always does everything for the greater good.”
According to Moody, Lupoli is a skilled motivator and is able to uplift his teammates with ease.
“Sal is a very good emotional leader. He always knows what to say, and there have been multiple instances where kids are really down about their spot on the team, or how they’ve been playing, and I’ve seen Sal literally pick them up with a matter of words. He is such a good influence on our team and I’m so happy he is an assistant captain,” said Moody.
Lupoli leads his teammates by example by balancing motivating his teammates with his personal skill as a lacrosse player, according to Jayme Wilde ’21, Jake Jordan ’20, and Moody.
Wilde said, “Sal is a great leader because he picks his head up after every play, whether it is right or wrong. He doesn’t dwell on the past. He’s really good at playing short stick defense, and he’s very good at taking faceoffs as well. He motivates everyone and really gets us all going.
“Sal carries himself with poise and honor. This is reflected on and off the field in all that he does. No matter how dire the situation may be, Lupoli holds himself to high standards and never fails to fall below that level. His personable and friendly personality makes it easy to relate and look up to him,” added Jordan.
Moody continued, “I would say Sal has clearly been a Captain before… I think one of his best qualities is being able to take what he is learned through all of his experiences at his previous schools and wrap that up and put it in the scope of Andover, and perfect his leadership craft. He doesn’t judge, he’s very understanding of who you are as a person, and he takes it and lays that on top of what he wants to instill in you in sports. So he does a great job meshing personal life with athletic culture.”
The relationships Lupoli has formed with other members of his team make the sport especially enjoyable, according to Lupoli.
Lupoli said, “My favorite thing about lacrosse at Andover has definitely been the guys. They’re all really good people and I love being around them. It is awesome working with other captains. Sawyer and [Assistant Captain] Henry Rogers [’19] are two great guys, and me coming in as a [Post-Graduate], just a new kid in the school, they got me to fit right in with some of the other lacrosse guys.”
Besides hoping to win as many games as possible and the make it to the championships, Lupoli looks to strengthen the team dynamic and improve everyone’s fitness so each individual player is able to play all four quarters by the end of the season.
Lupoli said, “I think a good goal to achieve by the end of the season would be to play a full four quarters of a team, of our team. We play really hard as it is, but together as a team I think if all of our guys are working together, we could have a pretty lethal team.”
