2019 marked my fourth year as varsity cats head coach at Neuqua Valley.
Be sure to check out the “One More” video about the ins and outs of the 2019 season.
The 2019 season will be following up 2 of the best seasons in program history, the phenomenal 2017 season where the Neuqua Valley Wildcats Boys Lacrosse team went to the state semi finals, and the equally as impressive 2018 season where we fell 4 goals short of a consecutive semi-final birth, losing in the quarter finals to GBW. The Cats are back in 2019 looking for vengeance.
I officially became tied for longest tenured Coach in program history, with Dave Neff, who started the program and held a 4 year reign from 2001-2004. My coaching tenure of 2016-2019 ties that. 2019 also marks the second year lacrosse will be an IHSA sport at Neuqua and in Illinois. Let’s get on with the 2019 season.
At the beginning of February, some senior cats won the local winter league and Coach Eble and I visited Coach Dario at his new restaurant Giambotta Pizza Co. in Plainfield. On February 11th, 2019 I hosted the annual Parent/Player Meeting at Neuqua.
A little more preseason action, February 17th, the Cats take home the varsity division at the Lax Revolution Tournament. Nevins for MVP.
February 20th - Seniors (and eventual captains) help the coaches put our new decals on helmets. Last year we didn’t have any decals, and the boys wanted to look even fresher this season.
The 2019 season officially kicked off on Monday February 25th & 26th with tryouts, outside in some very cold weather. No other teams wanted to practice outside, but that didn’t affect the lacrosse boys.
February 27th - March 6th - Jersey selection and hand out + film + practice inside + pool balcony workouts + coach Dario visits + seniors eat some hot dogs. We had the players set personal and team goals at the beginning of the year. Many of the team goals included winning conference for a third straight year, return to the Final Four, and to win a state championship. We also set goals for each game. Despite losing a large senior class in 2018, the class of 2019 was determined to keep our goals of 13 goals for and 5 goals against in 2019.
March 8th - Willy breaks out the patent pending lax mittens
March 11th - Practice Behind Stadium as usual. Our everyday practice field for 2019.
March 12th - Picture Day
March 13th - Dark practice with a back stop
FRIDAY MARCH 15TH
First day of Wheaton North South Shootout - 8 to 1 win over St Charles East
SATURDAY MARCH 16TH
March 16th - Day 2 of North South Shootout - Champions
9-6 win over Naperville Central
Tie WWS 4-4
12-3 over Wheaton North in the Semi’s
12-3 over WWS in the Finals
Finish the tournament 4-0-1 with a Championship. Call it back to back since we didn’t participate in 2018 and won in 2017.
March 18 - Practice and team dinner at Harmer’s
TUESDAY MARCH 19TH
First game of the season away at Lyons Township. Lose a nail biter 9-10.
THURSDAY MARCH 21ST
First Home Game of the year vs Conant. A convincing 17 to 0 win. That makes it 36-0 vs Conant over the past 2 seasons… Senior Captains are the Ball Boys for the JV Game
Spring Break Time. See ya in April. Check out our Sectional for 2019. We got moved from the South (Lockport) sectional to the West (Geneva) sectional this year.
Return from Spring Break for practice on April 1st. Paul Rabil attends practice.
TUESDAY APRIL 2ND
Head to St. Charles East and get the win 9-4. Welcome back from Spring Break
THURSDAY APRIL 4TH
Host Lincoln Way at Home, and pull off another 9-4 victory. Look at our beautiful home field. Sprints after the game when you don’t meet your goals.
Let it be known round the world that JV gets the girls. No questions asked.
Fun Friday practice on April 5th. Willy draws up some new plays and the boys enjoy a team dinner at McDonalds.
SATURDAY APRIL 6TH
Enjoy a beautiful and sunny day at Hinsdale Central, leaving with an 11-6 win
Monday April 8th - Quinn and Dario return to practice. Cats enjoy a fine meal at The Clymer’s.
TUESDAY APRIL 9TH
Fall to Naperville North for the first time since 2015. First conference loss since 2016 in a very close 6-7 game at Naperville North. We must have hit at least 4 pipes in the fourth quarter alone.
On Friday April 12th we had our last Fun Friday for a little bit until we got back on track. Senior Captains decision.
SATURDAY APRIL 13TH
Lose consecutive games for the first time in awhile. Loss at Maine South 9-11. Long bus ride up and the game started about 90 minutes late… No excuses, wake up call for the cats that we needed. I would say the turning point in the season.
April 15th the snow from the weekend melted and it was warm and sunny out, but very wet, so the boys run some bleachers.
Honers host team dinner on April 16th to get the boys ready for Waubonsie.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 17TH
Back in the win column by knocking off cross town rival Waubonsie/Metea Co-op 14-6 at Home.
April 18th was a tennis court type of practice day
Coach impresses the boys with his gold chain
April 23rd - Foy hosts team dinner
WEDNESDAY APRIL 24TH
A whole week off in between games, well rested and ready to go, we don’t give Naperville Central any hope in a 19-2 win at Central.
THURSDAY APRIL 25TH
Travel to OPRF on a Thursday night in rush hour traffic and take a 14-4 win.
SATURDAY APRIL 27TH
Senior day at home vs Benet. Win a wet and snowy game 14-12. Hooray Seniors. Perry scores a goal that goes up for NCTV17 Play of the Week. The Gunderson’s were kind enough to host everyone at their house after for our annual senior day luncheon.
April 30th - Another team dinner at Harmer’s after finding the 2004 Rocks on the Fox Lacrosse Tournament Trophy in the trophy case at Neuqua. Still there.
WEDNESDAY MAY 1ST
Welcome to the Swamp. Revenge game at home vs Naperville North. Commanding 15-6 win on a wet and muddy field. We even held off their offense with a 2 man defense at one point. First (and probably last) time I’ll ever see four guys in the box.
Friday May 3rd - Fun Fridays are back! Color coded teams this time around - Red, Black, & Blue
Vote for Perry campaign pays off as he wins Play of the Week and Play of the Month - May 7th
WEDNESDAY MAY 8TH
Another week in between games, travel to Metea and take care of The Valley with a 18-3 win. One game away from a 3rd straight conference championship
THURSDAY MAY 9TH
Travel to Minooka to play on a poopy grass field. It was their senior day and we won 20-0.
Sectional Rankings are released. We secure the #1 seed
Scrimmage with the girls team on Friday May 10th. A back and forth game that saw the boys take the win in overtime. Lots of quality videos that you should watch in the 2019 One More Video.
On Monday May 13th, Coach Dario and some alumni visit practice and then we have a team dinner at Thompson’s with help from the Schink’s
TUESDAY MAY 14TH
Very long bus ride up to Huntley. They kept it close in the beginning, but we took the win late, pulling away and winning 18-4.
WEDNESDAY MAY 15TH
Secure the Conference Championship for a 3rd straight year with a 24-3 blowout win over Naperville Central at home. Most goals in a game in program history. We are getting t-shirts! Now we await playoff brackets. Congrats to JV on another successful season. 13-1!
MONDAY MAY 20TH
The start of playoffs with a sectional first round game vs Bartlett, but at Kaneland. Wow what a drive for a “home game.” Knock off Bartlett on Kaneland’s grass field 16-2. At some point during practice before this game I gave the boys a theme for playoffs, which also happens to be the title of this post, “One More”. I asked them to play for one more game, one more pass, one more shot, one more groundball, one more save, one day with their brothers. I think they got the message…
Team dinner on May 21st at the Kretovic’s with Mayeri’s help
WEDNESDAY MAY 22ND
Second round of playoffs for the section semi-final. Another “home game” this time at the sectional host, Geneva. We had to play Geneva on their home field and pulled off a 9-2 against a stingy Geneva Defense. A little team scouting happens after the game. Oh also, the boys have decided to bleach their hair for another playoff push. Look at all those blondes.
FRIDAY MAY 24TH
The sectional final against power house South Elgin. There was a lot of hype going into this game, but we shut South Elgin down early and scored often, putting them away in the first quarter and winning 14-3 to claim our second straight Sectional Title. On to the quarter finals for a 3rd straight season. Coaches visit Coach Dario at Giambotta after the game.
Practice on Saturday May 25th & Monday May 27th. Carl misses Saturday, but gives us inspiration with this gem of a text, “I slept through 3 alarms sorry coach will be going on run and walk ball know days of.” And Know Days Of was born.
TUESDAY MAY 28TH
The super-sectional final against Barrington. Last season we lost in this quarter final game in a heartbreaker to Glenbard West. This years game took place at Schaumburg HS after some crazy weather was looking like it would be cancelled. My two senior goalies ended up missing practice the day before, so we were starting our freshman JV goalie. He played stellar for the whole first half. In a game of bizarre emotions and late penalties, we took the win with ease, taking our starters out for nearly the entire second half. We win 17-10 and head to the state-semi finals for the second time ever. It will be a rematch of the 2017 semi final game with New Trier.
Wednesday May 29th team dinner at the McDonald’s, the player not the restaurant this time.
State send off by the school on May 30th before the New Trier game. We got t-shirts & lunches…. and the principal gave a speech. Neat.
THURSDAY MAY 30TH
State Semi-Final Game vs New Trier. Pretty awesome atmosphere, a locker room, banners, a huge fan base, and state program books with all the boys stats and team pictures in there. There was media/cameras of all kinds and we even had interviews in a tented room after the game. It felt like a “big time” stage which was awesome. As far as the game goes, we gave it our all, but just couldn’t complete the comeback after too many early mistakes. Brought it within one, then gave up a goal pressing out. Lose 6-8. Unlike in 2017, our season is not over, as we will play in a 3rd place game on Saturday.
Last Fun Friday and practice of the year and the last team dinner thanks to the Perry’s - Friday May 31st
SATURDAY JUNE 1ST
State 3rd Place Game is a vengeance game. We play Glenbard West who knocked us out in 2018. Back to the big stage, with a locker room, fans and lots of cameras and media. Both teams come out hot with lots of goals. We switch to a zone after the first quarter which proves to limit their offense and get a huge 16-7 win to close out the 2019 season. What a year. Trophy time.
We had a decent amount of newspaper coverage this year (check the daily herald), as well as NCTV17 coverage, and Neuqua social media pages.
On Monday June 3rd we had our Club Banquet at Bolingbook golf club. Business as usual! Great way to close out another historic season. Check out the awards and captains speeches below.
AWARDS FOR THE 2019 SEASON
Varsity
Most Improved - Dan Curtis
Most Improved - Carl Lachenicht
Coach’s Award - Eddie McDonald
Best Attack - Caiden Perry
Best Midfield - Ben Schink
Best Midfield - Sam Schink
Best Defense - Ethan Hojnacki
MVP - Ben Foy
JV
Best Middie-Carter Sessa
Best Attack-Cole Cassidy
Best Defense-Jake Chivini
Most Improved-Griffin Adaya
Most Improved-Reese Baron
Coach's Award-Freddie Willman
Coach Eble treats the seniors to wings on June 5th. The 19 seniors take down 350 wings to set a new senior wings record. Boys were hungry all year long.
Bonus video for ya: Perry Builds Cars
2019 Awards
2019 DVC ALL CONFERENCE
#1 Ben Foy - Attack
#5 Griffin Harmer - Defense
#7 Ethan Hojnacki - LSM
#8 Caiden Perry - Midfield
#19 Eddie McDonald - Midfield / Faceoff
#20 Ben Schink - Midfield
2019 DVC ALL CONFERENCE Honorable Mention
#4 Sam Schink - Midfield
#6 Cam Nevins - Goalie
#11 Dan Curtis - Attack
2019 ALL-STATE
#1 Ben Foy - Attack
#7 Ethan Hojnacki - LSM
#8 Caiden Perry - Midfield
2019 ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN
#1 Ben Foy
#8 Caiden Perry
2019 ALL-AMERICAN
#8 Caiden Perry
Alumni Game Saturday June 8th - We had 31 players from classes 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. Thanks to all those who came out for the alumni game. Hopefully we can get more guys out next year!
And that wraps up another incredible year of lacrosse for your Neuqua Valley Wildcats. We set a school record with 22 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie. Those 4 losses coming by only 6 goals. Unofficial back to back North South Shootout Champs, a 3rd consecutive conference title, sectional champs, super-sectional champs, 3rd place in state. The third consecutive quarter finals appearance (and fourth of all time). The second semi-final appearance in school history. After tallying all 349 goals for and 127 goals against, We accomplished our goal set at the beginning of the year once again, finishing the year with an average of 13.2 gpg and 4.7 gapg.
We set a school record with 595 points on 349 goals, 246 assists on over 1000 shots, over 900 Groundballs, nearly 400 takeaways. 176 saves and only 127 goals against. 3 players had 85+ points, another 3 players with 40+ points and 5 more players with 15+ points – most balanced team I’ve ever coached, 9 all conference selections, 3 all state selections, 2 academic all-americans and our first ever all-american. I continue to grow my winning record as a coach with a 74-18 record over 4 seasons. We will miss our 19 seniors and welcome them as alumni, but look forward to returning 10 underclassmen for 2020. Big shoes to fill.
Special thanks to my assistant coaches from last year, Dicken, Eble, Shuptar & Dario, along with JV Coach, Coach Shotts.
See you in 2020.
GO CATS
Coach Maluta