The 2023-2024 Seven Hills Lacrosse Team has dealt with adversity this season and has to continue handling it with a proper mindset if they want to succeed as a team. The Stingers have introduced new players and coaches to fill the spots of key seniors who have graduated and left the team. Sophomore Miles Rizor said, “It is all about having the mentality that we can improve despite lacking some talent.”
Last year, the Stingers were ranked 65th in Ohio at one point and finished with a 13-2 record. They had multiple-star seniors, including Jack Good, Kyle Uchima, Logan Bein, Elias Buttress, and the crew. Jack Good was especially the star and leader of the team last year, and he ended his career with the outstanding achievement of scoring his 100th career goal. Overall, 10 Seniors on the team graduated last year. These players were outstanding, and once they graduated, the team had big spots to fill. The team introduced Coach Brennan to the team this year, and with these changes, the attitude and atmosphere that Lacrosse had at Seven Hills drastically changed, with much less excitement around the team. Max Ralph, a junior at Seven Hills, said, “Last year, there was so much hype around the team, but this year, I kind of forgot we even had one.”
This year, many new players joined the team from a variety of grades thanks to the help of Coach Brennan’s job to recruit more players and encouragement from players who played last year. It will be a challenge to achieve the same level of success that the Stingers had the previous year, but sophomore Paul Guibanich said, “We are definitely going to try.” The Stingers have started this year with a 0-3 record, stacking up losses to Covington Catholic, Cincinnati Country Day, and Summit Country Day. The Stingers still have a chance to bounce back from this and turn their season around.
The theme for this year for the Stingers has to be effort, hard work, innovative work, discipline, teamwork, and keeping the mindset of improving no matter what, despite the talent or skill level of the team. Sophomore Caleb Katz said, “Even if we do not have as much talent or skill as other teams, we can still fight and even win if we have the proper mindset.”
Katz said, “With many new players joining the team who have never played lacrosse, it is essential to keep the proper mindset and values because if we don’t, our talent alone will not carry us to win games.” This is especially valuable because while the Stingers may not be as experienced as other teams, they can make up for it with their discipline; the Stingers can go far in the tournament this year, but only if they believe in themselves and keep all the correct values and mindset. “I think that we are holding ourselves back with our mindset, especially the new players who seem to get discouraged and doubt their abilities when they make a mistake and mess up, ” said sophomore Luke Samaha. The ceiling for how good the Stingers can be is up to the team of what they believe their ceiling to be. Talent alone will not take the Stingers far; they must have the right mindset if they want to succeed.
