No. 3 Knights Prepared for Peak Performance
By Rebecca Plantholt
Rosedale, Md.— The No. 3 ranked Knights men's lacrosse team is buzzing the night before their season opener on the road at Union County College against the Owls. As with every season, the Knights team and coaching staff have high expectations and anything less than bringing home hardware falls short of their goal.
Head Coach, Shawn Burke, is not taking a passive approach to the season. "Our mindset heading into the season is to be in attack mode. We want to be aggressive and play a lot of guys, not play on our heels."
Last season, the Knights finished the regular season 8-3 and advanced to the Region 20 championship game. That appearance qualified them for the NJCAA National Tournament, where the Knights faced off with the host team, the Nassau Lions. In a back-and-forth game, the Knights ultimately lost to the Lions, who then went on to become the national champions.
A returner, Joe Wilson, had a taste of success with the Knights last season but is striving for more. "Our team has been working extremely hard all offseason in order to prepare for the upcoming season. We have a lot of talent on this team and have no doubt in our mind that we will be able to win the national championship this year."
Patrick Ruffolo is another returner who understands the importance of preparation. He said "the competitive level at which we practice every day" is something people outside of the team might not know.
Burke echoed that "having a full roster back this year really helps. The added depth helps us on a daily basis in practice and obviously in games."
Ruffolo said "we believe that we have the most talent in all of junior college so when we practice we are competing against the best of the best, preparing us for any game on our schedule."
This year the Knights start the season with a three-game road series before returning home for a couple contests. In their first five games, the Knights face the other four top-five ranked teams, two on the road including a trip to the defending national champions. Coach Burke said, "we are going to find out what we are made out of right away! This is a big reason also why we scheduled five road scrimmages in February so we would be battled tested going into the early part of our schedule. But this isn't something new. We play the best teams in the country on our schedule year in and year out."
Liam Kammar, a local freshman new to the program this year considers the opportunity to play for the Knights and Coach Burke an opportunity. "This team has an incredible amount of talent. We aren't the most polished team but we make up for it with grittiness and effort. This roster comes from many different backgrounds but we are determined to come together to win a ring. I'm not sure what other teams think about Essex but they should know that every time we step on the field, we are going to leave it all out. I'm excited to roll this season and get Coach Burke a title in his time back with the program as I'm sure everyone else on the team is."
For the Knights complete schedule, click here. Follow Knights men's lacrosse on Twitter @Knights_MLAX and all Knights sports @CCBCEssexSports.