To say the Quakers’ men’s lacrosse team has struggled in recent years is a bit of an understatement. Guilford has endured 18 straight sub-.500 seasons and had won only eight games in their years of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference membership. Then Guilford hired Tom Carmean.
Carmean had been the men’s lacrosse coach at Amherst College for the past decade before joining the Quakers in June 2010. Carmean played at the University of Massachusetts for four years, setting the school’s all-time goals and assists records. He also enjoyed a successful 11-year professional career and was named an all-pro five times.
Guilford’s men’s lacrosse team currently sports an 8-4 overall record (2-1 ODAC). Casual fans will see this as a decent record. For Guilford however, this record is great. The Quakers’ eight wins are the most since 1992, when Guilford won 10 games.
“There is no added pressure. There is no pressure to start with,” said Carmean.
He stressed this season is about getting back to basics. “The season is definitely not about records.”
Senior Charlie Robinson echoed this stance. “We’ve been taking the season one game at a time. Every play is 110 percent effort from everyone on the team. We can focus on the more difficult things if we take care of the fundamentals.”
Carmean has tried to establish an effective system for his team; a style of play where the Quakers can succeed individually and as a group. Carmean says the wins will take care of themselves.
Carmean and assistant coach Nate Bates tried to build the offense to the personality of the unit. This means designing the offense around what the squad does best, which this year is an uncanny ability to be unselfish.
Fourteen players have scored a goal this season and leading the way is Henry Farley with 18. Including Farley, the Quakers have eight players with five or more goals over the course of 11 games.
Multiple sets are created based on the offense’s passing ability and opponents’ tendencies. The offense works, “because multiple guys are contributing, we have balanced scoring through midfield and attack, not just one area of the team,” said Carmean.
The defense the Quakers use is pretty standard. “We just try to be solid on fundamentals,” said Carmean. “We’re not running any crazy zones. We just go at teams straight up, man to man.”
Senior Kevin Keesee backed up Carmean’s positive attitude. “The energy of the team after the opener and the overtime win against Virginia Wesleyan is the highest I’ve seen here in the past four years.”
Another basic principle for the players is leadership. The Quakers have been stabilized by the seniors who have remained. Carmean notes the seniors are great leaders who do what needs to be done. There are five seniors on the roster, and three of them are captains.
The seniors have a great sense of who they are and how they play. This confidence guides the quick growth and contributions of the younger players. The Quakers start three defensive first-years, and have seven first-years playing integral roles in every game.
“We work on fundamentals every day no matter what we are preparing for,” Keesee said. “We need them to play good solid lacrosse. This has allowed key players to step up and assume roles that needed to be filled. I think this has made the biggest impact on our season.”
The seniors also apply their leadership on the practice field where the team works on ground balls, shooting, and positioning. “If we do our fundamentals correctly, we have success in games,” said Carmean. “If we have a bad game or a bad quarter we revert back to old habits. We use that as an example of things we cannot go back to.”
Another point of getting back to the basics of lacrosse and sports in general, is to have fun. This is sometimes lost in college sports when practicing, playing, and working out can feel like a job. Carmean stresses to his team every day that every player needs to enjoy playing lacrosse. One of his messages has been to thoroughly enjoy the process of working together and that it is a privilege to play every day.
“There is a super positive energy around the team because the players’ efforts are paying off, and because they are having fun doing it,” added Carmean.
According to Carmean, having fun is one of the best things that can happen for a team. When players have fun, they will thoroughly enjoy playing. This gets players to practice and train hard because they want to improve. Improvement surfaces on the field when the team does well.
“Having fun sets off a positive chain reaction with players enjoying playing, better practice levels, and in-game challenges, but we meet those challenges right away with nothing but positive gains.”
Robinson is having a lot of fun this season and is taking it all in. “Overall I’ve had the most enjoyable season of my Guilford lacrosse career. We’ve been getting more support on the field and I’m glad to be a part of the success this season. I couldn’t be happier with a season like this for my senior year.”
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