Longmeadow boys lacrosse cements another title in its legacy

LONGMEADOW, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - The Longmeadow Lancers are champions again.

Fresh off their 10-5 victory over the Mansfield Hornets at Worcester State University’s Coughlin Field on Friday — the team lift the program’s 22nd state title since 1970 and 2nd in three years.

Long Time Assistant Coach Frank Verde was promoted to the Head Coach ahead of this year and told us he knew coming into the season how talented his group was it was just a matter of his attitude as a coach, “I’ve seen things that worked for teams that were very successful and things that kind of made us fall short. So, I tried to tweak the things that we do and keep the things that I thought brought the most success for us. My style of coaching, being positive as much as possible, building them up, you know, sometimes I had to crack down here and there. But, you know, we had plenty of ups and downs, but being positive overall is something that I tried to do this year.”

The boys dominated this season, finishing the season with over 15 wins and finished on a 12-game-winning-streak — both Coach Verde and his players pointed to a 3-game-losing-streak in the first half of their season that was the real turning point for the team.

“Being able to go to practice every day against some of the best players in the state is like, it means the world,” said junior Longmeadow goalie Leigh Chapman, “So being able to wake up after, you know, losing that third game to active Boxborough and putting your head down and working as hard as you can against your brothers and just like putting the hard work in. That’s what it takes, just putting your head down.”

Even though the seniors on the team had already a title back in 2024 — they wanted to erase the bad taste last season left and cement their legacy just like the alumni brotherhood that came before them.

“The year we won, that was definitely the main thing that I noticed of why we won. Just everyone was tight from the seniors to the freshmen,” said senior Max Itchitella, “and that just translates perfectly to the game and how you’re going to play. This year to just emphasize in that brotherhood and just keep hammering down that we’re a family. And that’s what we need to do to win the state championship. So, that was kind of it.”

And not that their legacy is cemented in history, Max has graduated and is getting ready to play lacrosse at Wesleyan University. Meanwhile for Leigh Chapman, “you know, funny enough, I got a final in 20 minutes. So, got to get that done physics. But hopefully it goes well.”