HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College men's lacrosse coach Colin Bathory '99 recently appeared on the Centennial Conference's preseason video where he talked about his team's upcoming season. Bathory will enter his sixth season as head coach and 10th overall as a coach at Haverford this spring. He led Haverford to its first Centennial Conference Championship during the 2010 season.
During his interview, Bathory gave his thoughts on the upcoming season as his team is set to begin the 2015 season. Also featured on the preseason call was Jack Bodine, a senior captain for the Fords. After the conference call, the Centennial Conference preseason poll was released in a vote among the coaches. Haverford was picked eighth in the conference.
The Fords open their season on the road against Cabrini on Saturday, February 21. The home opener is set for Saturday, February 28 against Eastern. Below you can see excerpts of quotes from Bathory about the upcoming season. Full video links to the preseason videos can be found at the top of the page.
On how the team looks so far this season…
Great. They are working really hard. We came in the fall with an attitude of improving from last season. The guys have really put the work in. They are doing everything they need to in order to get focused and prepared for a difficult season that lies ahead. We are in a very tough conference and we play a pretty tough out-of-conference schedule as well. The guys have eyes on that and are really doing everything that they need to order to be prepared and ready for every opponent and every moment in every game.
On this year's top returners:
The big thing for this year is getting a lot of guys back from the injuries we had last year. On the offense, on the attack line especially, Jack Bodine and Brandon Boccellari are two attackmen who were injured last year and we are looking for big things from them.
In the midfield, Geoff Geppert and Alejandro Vega are senior midfielders, both of whom were also injured last year and looking to go out on a strong note.
On the defensive line, we have Will Weissberg and Andrew Fenaroli returning. They were really the cogs of our defense last year and we expect big things from them with Victor N'Diaye as well contributing. He is starting to get healthy for actually the first time in his career. They'll be a great unit.
We have a goalie competition right now. Eric Caliendo has been a two-time starter for us both his freshman and sophomore years. He certainly has earned that the last two years. Aidan Snyder is our sophomore and he is giving a real strong run. It's good to have competition at every position and that is what we want to see.
On this year's newcomers…
Our freshman class is doing a great job. We have a pretty sizable class, a lot of depth at each position. The size of our roster is one where we are really looking for our freshmen to make an impact. We have middies, attack and defenders, all of whom really should be seeing time on the field in games if the competitions work out the way we expect them to at this point and we are excited about that.
Sophomores Richard Greenberg and Evan Dorman were guys who were scoring a lot of goals for us when we absorbed a lot of injuries last year. So we are looking for that experience they gained to really blossom this year into much more dominant roles. Defensively, Will Holden, Ben Miltenberg, our sophomores who got a lot of time last year, so we are looking for them to continue to rise and become stronger and stronger players, PJ Jackson in the midfield as well. All of whom benefited initially from injuries but then really took on strong roles with us last year.
Centennial Conference outlook:
It's always such a good conference. I continually feel as though we have one of the best conferences, if not the best in the country. I just feel top to bottom there is never a game that is not in question. No matter where anybody is in the standings, that is going to be a good game.