What do you like about lacrosse?
Mark Witt ’20: I think lacrosse is pretty non-stop. There are definitely stoppages with penalties and such but it’s up and down the field pretty rapidly… I think it’s just also a really exciting sport to watch because there are few enough goals where each goal is very exciting but there are quite a few so it’s not like soccer where you’re waiting the whole game for a goal. I really like running as well, so I really enjoy how fast paced lacrosse is.
Liam Nestor ’20: It’s just a nice time to get outside and compete with friends against people. It’s just a fun team activity.
What makes being on an Andover team different than your past lacrosse teams?
Mike Tracanna ’20: Andover’s team is special because it’s just such a tight knit group. It’s all in the culture the team builds. It’s something special and something I’ve never really been a part of before Andover.
Nestor: One of the things about Andover is with the academic part of the school being so hard, it makes it a lot more difficult to spend lots and lots of time training for lacrosse. When we do, as a team, put in that extra effort to get really good, it’s a lot more rewarding because it requires a lot more intensity and a lot more effort to get where we want to be.
Witt: I think it has to be the teammates. It’s such a humorous group of guys. No one really takes themselves too seriously and at the end of the day everybody really just wants to have fun and win games. We don’t really have any selfish players who are only in it to make their highlight reel plays. Everyone in the program really just loves the game and wants to hang out with the guys on the team and do well as a team.
What’s your favorite team tradition?
Witt: Something really special for me is running out onto Phelps Stadium. We line up outside the trainer’s room in the rink and we’re in two lines. You’re running out onto Phelps Stadium through that little tunnel. It’s not really a tradition, but it’s more of a game day necessity. You run out and you hear the cleats on the pavement outside the turf. Then you hit the turf and it’s sort of like a softer rumbling. [a]The crowd is cheering and there’s music playing. I wouldn’t say it’s as much as a tradition but it’s one of my favorite experiences as a member of the team.
What are your hopes for the season?
Tracanna: I want to build an even more tight knit team and grow the culture with the new coach as well to really help him out and pave the way for the future team and captains. I wanted to create new traditions. The other captains and I were talking with the coach about adding team traditions such as “Hardest Working Player of the Week” and other things like that to create more bonds within the team.
What are you hoping to emphasize with your leadership?
Nestor: The three of us Captains, one of the things we wanted to develop was chemistry amongst the team and just try to be as close as possible off the field thinking that that would translate to our relationships on the field, creating an environment of teamwork and working together.
Witt: I think togetherness is something really important to me. The biggest indicator of success on a team is whether or not they are 100 percent together and have each other’s backs and that was what I really was hoping to implement especially in this year’s team as a Captain.
How are you trying to connect your team despite being off-campus?
Tracanna: We’ve been having Zoom calls as a team. We have a team group chat where we’re constantly active. Everybody is also just always keeping a stick in their hands and we’ll be talking about lacrosse and stuff that we’re doing. We also even talk about things outside of lacrosse, just making sure that everyone is doing well.
