2024 Season Preview, Home Opener Moved To Sunday
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We’re excited to kick off another Fordham Prep lacrosse season and are looking forward to once again keeping the Prep lacrosse community abreast of all things FP lax related. We welcome back Varsity Head Coach Rob Coughlin P’15 for his second season, who along with Offensive Coordinator Connor Brown ‘09 and Defensive Coordinator Joe Shanagan, round out the Varsity coaching staff. We welcome Brendan McDougal and Dan O’Connell to the coaching staff, working with our goalies and faceoff specialists. Coach McDougal was a 3x All-American and 2x Division II Goalie of the Year at Adelphi. Coach O’Connell carried a top 10 faceoff win percentage during his college career at Holy Cross and Duke, winning an ACC Championship with the Blue Devils. The program has also added JV Assistant Coach Thomas Sluka to help JV Head Coach Seann Farrell. All have distinguished lacrosse playing and coaching pedigrees and you can read the coaches bios (here) and specialist coaches bios (here).
We would like to highlight that the Varsity team will be headed down to Florida the week after Easter to face Belen Jesuit and Christopher Columbus HS in Miami. This annual Spring trip is a great bonding experience for the team and always generates lasting memories. Thank you to the long time friend and supporter of the program who has graciously offered to pick up the tab for the trip.
We also would like to thank the over 120 lacrosse players and family, alumni, and alumni parents who gathered this past Friday for our annual Season Kickoff and Hall of Fame Dinner. It was another resounding success as Steven Piacente ‘00 was inducted into the Prep Lacrosse Hall of Fame. You can read about the evening (here).
Midseason we will be having the annual equipment drive, benefiting Bronx Lacrosse and CityLax, so keep your eyes out for that update. But remember, don’t donate everything…..you’ll need something to play with in future alumni games.
Any parents or alums who would like to help us with the Top Corner Club, please reach out at fptopcornerclub@gmail.com. If you would like to support the program, or learn more about the recently launched Lacrosse Endowment, you can donate (here). We are just below our initial $100,000 Endowment goal. So far this season, through the Endowment, the Top Corner Club has brought in the specialist coaches and will be subsidizing additional season expenses.
Please follow FP lacrosse on Instagram (@fordhampreplax), Twitter (@fordhampreplax), the Top Corner Club on Facebook, and subscribe to our distribution through the website if this was forwarded to you (www.fordhampreplacrosse.com).
Season Preview:
The Rams lost twelve players to graduation, including four of the top five scorers in 2023, accounting for over 60% of Prep’s goal scoring. So there is lots of room for players to step up and contribute this season. PJ Cunningham ‘24 (Bronx) will certainly be a focus of opponents as he looks to follow up his junior campaign, where he set the school single season record for goals scored with 65. The Prep will have a new goalie in the cage but will benefit from a nucleus of veteran long poles around him. This year’s roster (here) consists of 31 boys from across Westchester, Manhattan, and Connecticut from a diverse 19 towns with Manhattan and Rye leading the way. Congratulations to this year’s captains: William Leddy ’24 (White Plains), Jack Lucchese ‘24 (Somers), and James Spring ‘23 (Bronxville). Additional congratulations to Spring ‘23 on being selected with the honor of being the first recipient to wear the recently unretired #41 jersey in tribute to Chris Duffy ‘96. This new tradition will continue going forward as a player will be chosen to wear the #41 jersey each season.
The Rams look to build on their 9 - 9 2023 season, where they were hampered by mid-season injuries and one goal losses. The schedule was certainly tough, facing reigning North Carolina state champions Canon School, eventually Section 1 champion and state semi-finalist Rye, Connecticut power Wilton, as well as the usual top level CHSAA foes. The season ended with a tough loss to Iona Prep in the CHSAA semi-finals. 2024 presents another strong schedule (here) including games against top five national ranked St. Anthony’s and Chaminade.
The Prep season opens this Sunday 3/24 at home versus Bethlehem Central, followed by hosting St. Dominic and Cardinal Hayes in the inaugural Duffy Cup. The Rams then head down to Florida for the Belen Jesuit and Christopher Columbus games before returning to face Greenwich Country Day, Poly Prep, and Riverdale Country Day. Games against Bronxville and the King School lead the Prep into a tough late April stretch of #4 nationally ranked Chaminade, Iona Prep, Kellenberg, and Hackley. The Rams face a gauntlet in May heading first to Long Island to face #2 nationally ranked St. Anthony’s, then up to Connecticut for Greenwich (CT), and home versus Stepinac before closing out its regular season against Wilton (CT) at Gaelic Park at Manhattan College. Then it’s off to the playoffs.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Bethlehem Central is a new opponent for the Rams so there is no history between the schools. The Eagles were 5 - 12 last year playing Section 2 opponents and local schools in the Albany area. Like the Rams, it will be Bethlehem Central’s first game of the season. We are told the team’s games will once again be streamed on Local Live so be sure to check them out.
Alumni:
Best of luck to our alums playing in college as they continue their lacrosse careers at the next level - James Corasaniti ’18 (Providence), Stephen Zupicich ’19 (Villanova), Will Rice ’20 (Connecticut College), Sean Miller ‘21 (Holy Cross), Charlie English ‘23 (Middlebury), Jack Freel ‘23 (Haverford), and Lewis Moore ‘23 (Oberlin). Zupicich '19 currently leads the country in caused turnovers with 24, averaging 3.0 per game for the Wildcats, and has already been named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll twice. Mark your calendars for 4/6 when Corasaniti ‘18 and the Friars head down to face Zupicich ‘19 and the Wildcats in a Big East showdown. Congrats to Freel ‘23 and Moore ‘23 on scoring their first collegiate goals this season. Alums and alumni parents please keep sending in updates so we can highlight them.
Thanks again for all your support to Fordham Prep Lacrosse and good luck to all the players and coaches. We’ll see you on the sidelines!!!