RED DEVIL REDUX

Hinsdale Central Lacrosse 2018: Retold

It’s often said that sports are a metaphor for life. The trials and tribulations, successes and failures, and triumphs and defeats experienced in sports all translate into the real world. Additionally, the development of work habits through practice, as well as teamwork, are both skills that apply into all aspects of life. However, this metaphor isn’t just a one-way street, as life is a journey, and it’s not always about the summit, but about the path to the summit. For sports, many teams aren’t defined by the day or game that won them a championship, but by all of the days and games leading up to that moment. This holds especially true for the 2018 Varsity Girls’ Lacrosse team. On June 2, 2018, the Red Devils, on home soil, defeated lacrosse powerhouse New Trier 13-3 to claim the Illinois state title. Ultimately, however, that championshipwinning team won’t be characterized by those 50 minutes on a summer evening, but will be characterized instead by the months

of practice and games leading up to it.

Heading into the season, there was an aura of confidence surrounding the team. Jessica Joy, sophomore attacker at the time, said there was not only the desire, but also the expectation that they would win state.

“We all went into the season wanting to win,” Joy said. “The goal at the end of the season was the state championship, and everyone was expected to fulfill their role and hold everyone else accountable because we really wanted to win the state championship.”

However, the road to a state title, no matter how good you might be, how good you think you might be, or how good you want to be, is never an easy one, and one of the driving forces behind reaching the final destination was the coaching staff. The Red Devils were headed by Dan Hartman, with assistant coaches Maggie Zentgraf and Kelsey Sopron also supporting the team. Lally Johnson, senior attacker at the time, said each coach had their own role, and they worked well as a trio.

“[Hartman] was a really good coach,” Johnson said. “He knew how to make players play better. Coach [Sopron] was the comedic relief, and whenever things got intense, she always knew how to make us laugh. Coach [Zentgraf] was a genius, she knew everything about lacrosse, and she knew how to teach and coach lacrosse.”

Another popular adage used in sports is “it isn’t about the X’s and O’s, but about the Jimmies and Joes,” implying that a team can have the best coaches, but without good players, they’ll never achieve anything.

Photo from @RedDevilsAD The Red Devils outscored their opponents 62-20 in their five playoff games, marking a dominant finish to the season for the state champions.

Central had an outstanding coaching staff, but their success was going to come down to the players themselves. Joy said they had a very balanced squad, and that made them difficult to beat.

“There wasn’t a star player, and that’s why we were so hard to beat,” Joy said. “We didn’t rely on a sole person or a few people to carry the team, and everyone had their role.”

Additionally, Johnson said everyone on the team had a really good relationship, and that helped them win on the field.

“We all genuinely liked each other,” Johnson said. “We would hang out together all the time, and we’d practice together even when we weren’t in season, so there was a lot of chemistry off the field, and that really helped.”

The Red Devils kicked off their season with emphatic wins over Naperville North and Conant in non-conference play, as well as opening their conference season with a 17-1 win against York. They took that 3-0 record with them on a spring break trip to Georgia, where they faced some high level competition down there. Joy said that although they didn’t win as much as they would’ve liked, the way they played validated how good they thought they were.

“Going down there, we knew we’d be facing some of the best teams in the country,” Joy said. “We went 1-2, but the games that we were supposed to get blown out in were decided by one or two points. We were shocked by what we had done, and that made us think, ‘Wow, we really have a special team this year.’”

Central then headed up to Michigan to face Rockford, the state champions, which would be a weekend that Joy said was the turning point of the season.

“Everyone would pinpoint that as the moment when the switch flipped for the team,” Joy said. “We lost in double overtime, and Hartman yelled at us in the locker room after the game about what we could’ve executed better. Our game the next day got rained out, so we woke up early and came back to Central, where Hartman then said, ‘We’re having a practice.’ That was probably the hardest practice I’ve ever been a part of, but that’s where the intensity of the team went up a level.”

Central then went on a tear against local opposition, winning eight games in a row, which wrapped up the West Suburban Conference title for them. Johnson said winning the conference title carried a little extra weight because of the relationships the Central players had with players on other teams.

“[Winning the conference title] was always fun,” Johnson said. “Illinois lacrosse is a small community, and so there was always someone on the other team that you knew. Everyone also got to play in conference games, and we’d try new plays and have fun with it.”

by John Olsen

26 | Perspectives

However, also within that run of games, the Red Devils squared off against Loyola Academy, who had won the state title eight years in a row. Central was up by four goals at halftime, but unfortunately, a storm prevented the game from being finished. Johnson said that game really made them believe that they could win the state title.

“After the game, everyone’s phones were blowing up and all of our club lacrosse friends were texting us, saying, ‘Oh my god, I heard you were beating Loyola, you’re gonna beat them in state, this is going to be amazing,’” Johnson said. “Everyone hates Loyola because they’re the best team, and since this game didn’t count, we wanted to make [the result] official.”

Shortly before the playoffs started, the Red Devils had a chance to face New Trier, their other main competition in their quest for the state championship. They ended up losing 11-9, which was a surprising outcome. Joy said they knew they could beat New Trier, it just didn’t come together in that game.

“We went into the game with the mentality that we knew we could win,” Joy said. “We knew we had all of the tools we needed to win that game, but our execution just wasn’t there that time around.”

Johnson also said that New Trier caught them off guard with some of their tactics, but the game also gave them insight into how they would win in a potential rematch.

“It was very eye-opening,” Johnson said. “I think the reason they shut us down was because they had a defender standing next to Jenna Collignon, who was having an amazing season, the entire time. Although it surprised us at the time, it was also nice because we expected them to do that again the next time.”

Central’s playoff run began with a 14-2 victory against Montini Catholic, followed by a 9-5 win against local rivals Lyons Township, before the Red Devils secured their place in the Final Four with an 18-5 demolition of O’Fallon. In the semifinals, the girls would get a chance to make their superiority over Loyola official. Joy said the team tried to treat the rematch like they hadn’t “won” before.

“The biggest thing for us was to not treat the previous game as a win,” Joy said. “Although we were leading at halftime, you can be up at any point in any game, and so we made sure not to come in high and mighty, expecting to win, because we were leading before.”

The Red Devils proved that their earlier encounter against the Ramblers, although unofficial, was no fluke with an 8-5 triumph. Joy said that game was extremely special due to the emphasis that had been placed on beating Loyola years before she was in high school.

“That game was crazy,” Joy said. “The majority of us played IGLA, which was the AYSO equivalent, and one of the dads that coached told us, ‘We are training to beat Loyola.’ We were 4th and 5th graders, and didn’t really know Loyola. It made beating them on our home field awesome.”

With both revenge for a defeat earlier in the year and a state title on the line, the Red Devils took their chance and vanquished New Trier 13-3, which was a shocking turnaround from an 11-9 loss just weeks earlier. Even more surprising was the fact Central won the game with a running clock, which was part of a mercy rule and something that is an anomaly in such a competitive game.

Joy said the shift in momentum right before halftime was what ultimately propelled Central to the victory.

“We had scored just before halftime to go up 4-3, and we had been down the majority of the first half,” Joy said. “Coming out of the locker room, momentum was kind of on our side, and we just took off running and carried that momentum throughout the half, tacking on goal after goal.”

Johnson said the reason the Red Devils kept tacking on the goals, and won by such a large margin, was a result of their biggest weakness.

“Our biggest flaw was [keeping the ball under pressure],” Johnson said. “We’d work on it every practice, and were just horrible at it. Our goal was to keep the ball for two minutes and we didn’t do it once all season. The reason we ran up the score is because [New Trier] started playing high pressure, and since they did that, the only thing we knew how to do was go straight to goal and score.”

Given the circumstances, Joy said that the feeling of winning the state championship was indescribable.

“Knowing that we had done it on our home field and knowing we had done it beating both Loyola and New Trier made it even better,” Joy said. “I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was amazing.”

As amazing as winning the title was, Johnson said the relationships and bonds they developed with each other throughout the year were even more memorable.

“They were my friend group in high school,” Johnson said. “It’s been almost three years now, and I can still text any of them, and I’m in contact with most of them all of the time.”

Most importantly, Johnson said those relationships that everyone in the team developed made an already extremely special moment even more special.

“It wasn’t like my lacrosse team won a state championship,” Johnson said. “It was me and my friends that won a state championship.”

Perspectives | 27