Memorial girls lacrosse program on the rise

MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Memorial/West High School girls lacrosse team missed the postseason tournament by just one game this season, but that doesn’t take away from the reality that this season was the program’s best in recent memory.

That, according to head coach David Gocklin, who took over as head coach at Memorial four seasons ago after years as as a football coach and official.

“I decided to take up lacrosse not really knowing much about it other than being from Syracuse, New York,” he said, “but it’s been fun learning a lot trying and trying to grow the program and get as many girls interested as possible.”

And he’s done exactly that, beginning with 21 girls, then building the program to 32 participants his second season and 39 girls Memorial girls his third season while adding three from West when the programs joined together prior to last season.

Though the number of participants this season dipped back into the 20’s, Gocklin noted the talent and ability on the field progressed.

In fact, after three years of finishing as Division-II cellar dwellers, the Crusaders rose up the rankings from their typical position of 17th or 18th to 13th in the standings, one win out of a spot in the postseason.

“The past two seasons, we haven’t had more than two wins. Last season, we only had one,”said Gocklin. ” We competed against the teams we were evenly matched with and we had a difficult time competing with the teams in the division that were better than us – like Hanover, Winnacunnet or Timberlane – but we went out to compete in those games and that was the goal, to compete, but to beat those teams, we’re not at their level, but we did progress this season.”

Indeed, the Crusaders won three of their first five games of the campaign.

After beating Keene-Monadnock, 15-14, in the season opener on April 8, Memorial/West fell, 12-2, to cross-city rival Manchester Central on April 11 before bouncing back to edge Kingswood, 9-8, five days later.

The Crusaders were bested by Goffstown, 20-4, on April 19, but then defeated Alvirne, 12-2, on April 22 before hitting a stretch of the season where they lost eight in a row, falling to some of the aforementioned D-II powers and also dropping a couple tight contests against other middling teams, including a 15-12 setback at Kingswood on May 13.

They earned a second win against Alvirne with a 4-1, thunderstorm-shortened affair on May 21, and then closed the season with a tough 11-8 loss at ConVal on May 23 that knocked them out of postseason contention.

“Overall, there were times we played to the level of those particular teams, whereas when we competed against the top teams, we played to a higher level even though we lost those games,” said Gocklin, who noted that even though his team fell just short of its preseason goal of reaching the postseason, he was still impressed with their progress.

“I was proud of the girls. they did not quit,” he said. “Almost all the games they were competitive, and it certainly was really outstanding for the girls to be able to do that.”

Among those on the team who made a significant impact, Elma Stitkovac paced the team’s scoring with with 39 goals and many assists this season, while captains Kaleigh Murphy, Lily Hall and Lyla Colangelo all set a tone of hard-work and positivity, said Gocklin.

“They all have great personalities, and there was no drama, which was great,” he said. “They came up with goals they wanted to see for the team, as opposed to me doing that, and it was those goals they maintained throughout the season because they knew we had talent on the team and they were consistent, so that helped.”

He also said they went with him to middle schools in the area to help promote the program and get more girls interested in joining the lacrosse team at the high school level.

“The biggest challenge for teams here in Manchester is that we lack a feeder program. That’s huge,” he said. “If the girls started at least at middle school, that would certainly help, because right now, I spend a good chunk of the preseason and the beginning of the season teaching them skills and trying to coach them up and then the rest of the season is working on strategy, but right now, girls lacrosse is pretty much a second sport for most of the girls.”

Still, the program is on the rise, and Gocklin said he hopes to build off this year’s progress.

“Next year, we’re going in with same expectations of making the tournament,” he said. “We’re going to be losing six seniors, and have five juniors going into their senior year and then a few sophomores, so we’re going to have to work hard to replace them because we do have a young team.”

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