BHS Boys Lacrosse Going Varsity

It has been a long haul for Berlin boys lacrosse coach Scott Rossi.

When he started the Berlin Youth Lacrosse program in town nine years ago, he hoped one day it would funnel players to the high schoo varsity team. The trouble was, there was no team at the high school and there was not one scheduled in the near future.

Jump ahead to the last Board of Education meeting, last month. The BOE approved Berlin High School to field a full varsity boys lacrosse team next spring.

"I was actually helping with our third and fourth grade team practice and I knew the Board of Ed. was voting on it but I couldn't take sitting through the whole meeting," Rossi said. "I got there at the end of the meeting and heard it had passed so I was thrilled.

Rossi said the timeframe to get to the Redcoats playing a full varsity schedule has been "reasonable."

"A lot of times high schools will start with a team and then try to get the youth program going," he said. "To me that is going backwards. I think you have to get the youth program off the ground and build the sport and the numbers. We started intramurals at the middle school and through that and the youth program we had more than enough players and interest for the high school team."

Berlin played as club team this year, taking on junior varsity teams and some varsity teams along the way. The Redcoats were dominant against this level of competition and was ready for the next step.

"I knew eventually we would be playing varsity so I wanted to prepare us by playing the best competition we could," Rossi said. "We played Cheshire's j.v. and Watertown and Rocky Hill varsity. I wanted to play more varsity programs but it was a no-win situation for them. It didn't count toward their CIAC ranking to play a club team and if the lost to a club team, it would certainly not be the best feeling."

Rossi said he wishes the season would start right now.

On a scale of 10 of excitement, I'm a 10 out of 10," he said. "I'm already starting to prepare by talking to possible j.v. and assistant coaches. I want to get all my ducks in a row. I don't want to be just playing in the spring, I want us to be very competitive."

Berlin had 50 players on the roster last year. Rossi said ideally he would like 20 to 25 on both the varsity and j.v. rosters in the spring.

Rossi praised the help of athletic director Jim Day.

"The athletic department went out and bought us top of the line helmets last year and the uniforms we will wear were gifted by the club," Rossi said. "We will have top-notch equipment.

"It's way too early to say how we will do in our first year. We don't have a lot of experience coming back. We lost our entire offense and goalie so we're starting over there. We actually have two players, Tyler Kradas at Mitchell and Bruce Cutkomp at Eastern Connecticut, who hope to play in college this year. If we could be a .500 team that first year that would be great and I think that is a relaistic goal."