Marty Stewart | Sunday, March 26, 2017, TRIB-LIVE
Kevin Devinney has taken over as coach of the Fox Chapel boys lacrosse team this season, and he has high hopes.
The Foxes finished 10-4 last year and lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.
“It was a very successful season, and now we have to replace a lot of senior starters from that team,” Devinney said.
Senior Eli Izenson returns to the lineup.
“He will be our senior anchor on defense this year,” Devinney said.
The coach expects the junior class to be led by Jarad Reiss and George Thompson on attack, midfielders Patrick Poznik and Grant Geraci, and Nolan Crocker on defense.
“They will all make significant contributions to the team,” Devinney said.
“We also have a very talented sophomore class that will need to make an immediate impact. We’re well-balanced on both offense and defense and have good focus and dedication. Our experienced players have done well in teaching and encouraging our first-year players, which is incredible to see. Our new guys have come a long way in a short time, and that is fully attributed to the quality of the guys that surround them.”
Devinney’s main concerns are the relative inexperience of the team.
“We’re definitely underclassman-heavy, so we’re a little inexperienced at the varsity level, but I believe our young guys are ready to compete at a high level and we’re not going to use our youth as a crutch,” he said. “We also graduated four all-section players, two of which were All-Americans, and the WPIAL D1 Coach of the Year (Chris McCrady) also left the program, so we obviously have big shoes to fill there.”
Fox Chapel will compete in Section 2-AAA with Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Plum and Shady Side Academy.
“I expect our team to compete at a very high level and contend for playoffs and possibly section,” Devinney said. “If we work hard enough, there should be no reason that we would fall short of those expectations.”
In section play, he expects Shady Side Academy to be a top contender.
“We know they’ll be a top team in our section,” he said. “But we also expect competitive games from all teams in our section, and those games are in bold font on our schedule for a reason.”