Syosset Girls Lacrosse, Boys Cross Country Ready for Spring Season

New Season Brings New Goals for Syosset Girls Lacrosse

When the 2011 Syosset Braves girls lacrosse season begins on Saturday morning, Head coach Diane Malley will be leading a team with more experience than the one she had last year. The squad, composed mostly of juniors and sophomores, is expected to be anchored by a strong midfield.

With the increased number of returning players, there comes a new set of strict defensive goals.

“We’d like to keep teams in the single digits,” Malley said. “Last year, we gave up a lot of meter shots. We’re looking to decrease that number drastically. We want to be a lot more sound defensively and take less risks.”

On the offensive end, Malley’s goals are almost the exact opposite.

“We had a couple of games where we scored three to five goals,” Malley said. “We’d really like to push it to double digits.”

Syosset will be implementing these goals against some new competition. Starting last fall, Nassau County conference alignment has been based on enrollment, not ability. This has caused most teams to face new opponents.

Girls lacrosse, however, will not see as drastic a realignment as other sports have. A contingent of coaches, including Malley, were able to convince Nassau County that grouping schools based on size, rather than talent and general knowledge of the game, would cause a significant safety hazard.

“The coaches were unanimously supportive of that idea,” Malley said. “It’s the best environment for the kids that play our game.”

Syosset will play in the same conference as Freeport, Farmingdale, Massapequa, Hicksville and Oceanside. The Braves open up the season on at 10 a.m at

A Spring in Their Step…

The massive youth movement sweeping the Syosset boys cross country program continued this week with the beginning of the spring season.

Like fall and winter, spring track will be less about the Braves standing within Conference I and more about building up freshman and sophomores for a more competitive drive next season.

A large reason for the new approach is conference realignment. The Braves find themselves competing with some of the top track programs on Long Island - Farmingdale, Uniondale, Massapequa, and Hempstead are all traditional powerhouses within Conference I and are all experiencing strong results. 

“With a young squad, it’s hard for us to compete at that level,” Head coach Bart Sessa said. “We’re going to have to focus on individual achievements. If we were in one of the smaller conferences , we’d get away with some younger kids, but you can’t in Conference I."

Some of those individual achievements may come in the shot-put.

returns to throw after not competing last spring. The three-sport star received All-County honors last winter. Brian Sheng is a returning county qualifier in both shot-put and discus.

While a conference title may not be in the cards this year, Sessa is excited about his teams progress in the winter season and is looking towards rebuilding Syosset’s successful cross country program.

“Training went really well,” Sessa said of the winter track season. “The racing was okay, but now that we’re starting to get into some faster paced workouts, I think their improvement will be tremendous.”

The Braves open up the season on The first home meet is March 28 at 4:15 p.m.     

Braves Lacrosse Booster Club to Host Dinner

The Syosset High School Lacrosse Booster Club will have its second annual fund raiser dinner and casino night on Friday at The Woodlands. The event will go from 7 p.m to 11p.m.  

The group will raffle off prizes donated by local businesses. Among the choices will be gift certificates to nail salons, 15 different local restaurants, and 12 local retail stores.

“When asked to help, they were all happy to contribute and support our boys,” Organizer John Hunter said. 

The club is hoping to raise money to send the team to Maryland for the Spring Lacrosse Weekend Trip and to a tournament in Walt Disney World in 2012.