After playing a JV schedule last season, Cape Cod Academy boys lacrosse is making noise

OSTERVILLE -- In head coach Christian Sears' first season at the helm of the Cape Cod Academy boys lacrosse team, he came in with a mission for his team.

"We wanted to make noise on the Cape," Sears said.

On paper, it was a tall task. The Seahawks are coming off a 2022 season in which they didn't field a varsity team, and entered 2023 lacking experience.

To call the Seahawks young would be like calling the Mona Lisa just a doodle. The entire school is roughly 250 students, and the Seahawks lacrosse team features sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, all of which see time on the field.

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In order to have success this season, Sears knew it had to start with him. With such a young team, he wanted to build a culture of support for his players, something he views as paramount.

"As their teacher, they know I am there for them. I’m not just their lacrosse coach. I’m not just their teacher. The hardships of life and the rules they must follow require someone with accountability." Sears said. "If I do that for them, it's a win for me."

"He's super supportive," senior Dylan Andrews, who also played for Sears on the Seahawks soccer team, said. "He doesn't scream, he doesn't work us into the ground (and) he makes sure we have an understanding of what we're doing on the field."

Sears said a lot of the groundwork for their success this season actually began last year when he was an assistant coach and the team played a junior varsity schedule. Now at the helm, he's leading his team to the next level.

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"I continue to build, starting with basic strategies," Sears said. "Then I show them things that can happen in a game where they have to then adjust and ideally they start to then make those adjustments on their own."

On the field, Sears needed leaders to step up, put his principles into action, and help guide the younger players forward. He has that in his defense.

"My two captains, (defenders) Dylan Andrews, and Bereket Nelson, they really want to see this program thrive," Sears said. "I said to them, 'This is a year where you're not exactly worrying about your own stats, it's really about leadership for the younger guys."

Andrews said after the Seahawks 13-8 win over St. John Paul II on Monday, that his team knew they could come into this season and compete with anyone.

"We knew we were a good JV team last season, (and) we hung with a lot of good teams. We knew that that would transfer over," Andrews said.

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It's a good thing games aren't played on paper.

The Seahawks have started this season 8-1 and feature one of the most prolific offenses on Cape Cod. Sophomore Ryan Woeller said the biggest key to the hot start is in how they've attacked this season.

"It was really just the intensity," Woeller said. "We wanted to come out the gate as hard as possible, and just prove a point that we belong here."

Through nine games, the Seahawks have scored 124 goals, which comes out to almost 14 goals per game. Leading that attack are three sophomores (Woeller, Brady Livingston, and Harrison Barbieri) and seventh-grader Landen O'Neil.

At the heart of the attack, is fluidity and movement, which allows for those four, and others, to get open looks.

"We try to run a lot, whether that's from the X, even if it's not intentional... Knowing that by just drawing a slide or to, that we can set those guys up to just finish." Sears said.

Woeller, who had six goals in the win over the Lions, agrees that the motion in the Seahawks offense allows for it to flow.

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"I think our ball movement is pretty good, and just the IQ in general, off ball cuts, (and) knowing when to pass and shoot," Woeller said.

Despite the early season success, the Seahawks are still going through some growing pains. One major area has been fielding ground balls, and for Sears, he feels the next step in his teams development is speeding up the in game decision making process.

"From this team's perspective, picking that ground ball up, having the communication to know exactly where we're going to go for the next pass, is something that is always a work in progress," he said. "Once that's dialed in, I know this team can start to really make some louder noise."

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Academy boys lacrosse soaring to 8-1 start