The Maryland men’s lacrosse team is gearing up as a new season approaches. The season begins on Feb. 4, and the team is coming off an 18-0 national championship season.
The team was hungry in 2022, having gotten extremely close to a national title in 2021 before losing to Virginia. This season, the team will be working hard to try and keep that title.
“The disappointment part in ’21, it was very motivating. So, having that as something that really motivated guys, it just was a natural,” Terps head coach John Tillman said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 31. “So now you’re looking, you don’t have that. The concern is always, ‘Are you as hungry as you were before? Are you putting in that much effort? Do you have that level of focus? Are you pushing yourself that much harder as you did in the past?'”
Tillman mentioned how the Terps lost some good players after last season. The team lost its four top scorers from a year ago in Logan Wisnauskas, Keegan Khan, Jonathan Donville and Anthony DeMaio. Combined, they had 160 goals and 113 assists in 2022.
The 2023 season marks a new campaign with some new faces, but there are several key players coming back from last season like midfielder Kyle Long, attackman Owen Murphy, faceoff specialist Luke Wierman and goalie Logan McNaney.
The players coming back this season are good leaders, according to Tillman, who has some comfort with them due to their experience. Still, they have to all work together on the field to succeed.
“I think if everybody on the field realizes that we’ve got to do this together and we can’t just sit around and watch one guy do it, maybe that can work to your advantage in that everybody’s going to be super dialed in. Everybody’s going to be excited about their opportunity,” Tillman said.
This season, graduate defenseman Brett Makar was chosen to wear the prestigious No. 1 jersey. Typically, that jersey has gone to an offensive player. This year, however, Tillman took a different approach. This number is given to someone who embodies everything the team stands for and who leads in more ways than just lacrosse.
“There’s a little bit added weight to it, and I’m not going to use the word pressure but there’s a little bit more of, ‘Hey, you’re a guy that is looked at a little bit more carefully. Maybe judged a little bit harsher, because of the standard and the tradition of that number,'” Tillman said. “And I do think Brett is very well-suited [for that].”
The team scrimmaged Duke and Georgetown in January to improve during the preseason and prepare for the season. Tillman says these scrimmages are very important for the growth of this new team.
Tillman says the team’s practices have been a competitive environment.
“I think all of us kind of talked about how this is a new opportunity. And I think our kids are smart enough to realize a lot of those guys aren’t here anymore,” Tillman said. “So this is a new year with new challenges and we have a lot of guys in new spots and you know what happened last year isn’t going to carry over, and I think our kids have done a pretty good job with that.”
For more from Tillman, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics