BY STEVE HASSEY
Mariemont’s lacrosse team finished last season wildly celebrating on Upper Arlington’s field as the champions of Ohio Division II Lacrosse. After graduating five seniors, they are back for more.
This season brings high expectations for a storied franchise that has made it to the Final Four four times in the last ten years and has won two of the last sevensttate championships.
With these historic successes, the captains of the 2014 team, Sam Long, Dalton Osgood, Macko Saffin, and Cal Fries, have set several goals for the upcoming season. They want to be the best conditioned team in the state, to defeat Turpin in the battle for the paddle, and, most importantly, to win another state championship.
Things will be different after the success of last season, though, at least according to senior Sander Henning.
“Each team is going through their schedule and circling us as the game that they want to win. We will always have a target on our back,” said Henning, a returning varsity player.
Head coach Steve Peterson sees the upcoming season as an opportunity to prove what the team is truly made of.
“Mariemont lacrosse is about championships. We are focused and will fight hard to bring a third state championship home to Mariemont in 2014,” said Peterson.
And Peterson is sure that his squad is up to the task.
“We have 53 players this season, 26 of which are upperclassmen, giving us the most depth as a team since the program started in 2002,” said Peterson.
But there is a positive addition to the team with the new season: the return of Jon Bezney as a senior specialist. The 6’5” 275-pound Bezney, who will take faceoffs this year, took his junior year off as he focused on adding weight for his future college football career at Yale University.
“Jon is the hardest working person I’ve met my whole life. He’s an addition in any position that we put him, because no matter what, he works hard and leads,” said returning varsity junior Parker Sullivan.
According to Sullivan, the biggest changes with the new season will be the “targets on their backs” and the differing expectations.
“Winning the championship has changed from being a challenge to an expectation.”