Growing pains aplenty as Mearns and team stay positive during their inaugural season
For the St. Bonaventure University men’s lacrosse team, the end of their inaugural season is near. With four games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Bonnies have a lot to look back on and grow from, all the while having plenty to look forward to.
After an 0-9 start in their introductory season, the Bonnies’, head coach Randy Mearns said he recognizes it has been a challenge thus far, and he didn’t expect anything less going into the first active season.
Mearns said, “It’s been exciting getting everyone matriculated into the system, and every day has been let’s just try and get better.”
Mearns has spent the last 19 seasons at Canisius College growing their lacrosse program into the national contender it is today. Developing a young program is nothing new for an experienced coach such as Mearns.
For Mearns, every day is a stepping stone in the progression of the Bonnies into contender for a national championship. Mearns and his assistants, Gill Connors and Rich Schunke, are constantly working to figure out where they are in the development process and that leads to figuring out what they can change in their system to create the most success.
“Every day, let’s just try and do everything to get better,” Mearns said, “Whether that’s what we are wearing on the bus trip, to what we’re putting in our bodies the night before, to rooming lists, to game prep, to film study, you just go through it trying to get better.”
Along with the growth that comes with the creation of a new Division I program comes the development of some unique game plans.
Mearns and the Bonnies have been spoiled with the problem of having two Division I caliber goalkeepers, Brett Dobson and Ben Mazur. Both freshmen have nearly identical stats as Dobson has played only 19 more minutes than Mazur, and they’ve both given up approximately 14 goals a game.
“They are both absolutely phenomenal goalies,” said Mearns. “We just happened to have two of them in the same year.”
Having two remarkable goalies has caused Mearns to split their play time because he feels the both have too much to offer.
“We had a good discussion with both of them and just can’t determine who the guy is,” said Mearns. “They were open to splitting time because there is no animosity, and they love each other.”
Splitting play time between the goalies has had its successes this season but is still a work in progress.
Mearns said, “We are going to continue to evolve along this metric until we find our guy that guy that is the starter.”
The Bonnies continue to move forward with their regular season schedule that contains only four more games before postseason play. Their next opponent is Cleveland State that began their program from scratch three years ago. Cleveland State is 5-6 on the year, losing to the number one team in the country by a mere four goals. The Bonnies look at Cleveland State as what the program hopes to be in the near future.
Mearns said, “I have gotten to know Coach Sheridan and as I took on this journey at St. Bonaventure saying, ‘Hey, how did you develop your leaders and what did you about this and that?’”
The St. Bonaventure men’s lacrosse team has been on a journey this season and with four games remaining, they hope to continue to, as Mearns said, “get our guys to have high goals and dreams and eventually achieve them.”
By John Pullano, Opinion Editor
pullanjj18@bonaventure.edu
