The Saint Joseph Lacrosse team is looking forward for the season ahead. On the heels of winning the state title, the Indians lacrosse team moves from division 1A to 2A, completely changing the teams that they will face in the playoffs. The Indians need to put in extra work this preseason to face the tough competition of Hamilton Southeastern, Cathedral, and Carmel.

Although the regular season begins in February, the lacrosse team’s preseason starts in September. This allows the team to be much better than they were the previous season because they have an extra season’s worth of time to practice together. Because of the long preseason, new players that are in multiple sports have the time to practice with the team.

During the preseason, the team does a variety of practice types. During the fall, the team practices on the Saint Joseph football field. The team scrimmages, does separate offensive and defensive drills, and conditioning. When asked about the pre-season, senior Aiden Dowdle said, “We’ve been doing a lot of shooting drills, passing drills, some ground ball drills, and just some fun lacrosse stuff.”

Dowdle commented, “We’re on the field right now, but we’ll be transitioning into the gym soon.” During the winter, the team moves inside to the auxiliary gym to practice due to the cold weather and snow. In the auxiliary gym, the team focuses on perfecting the fundamentals, as it is difficult to scrimmage in such a small space. The team does wall-ball, conditioning, passing drills, mobility training, and competitive drills in place of scrimmaging.

The lacrosse team takes as much advantage of the preseason as they can, so they can have another successful season.