'We just want to play our best lacrosse.' Hopkinton inspired by teammate battling cancer
HOPKINTON – The focus is on the process, not the product.
The Hopkinton High boys lacrosse team already has eight wins, just two shy of last season’s total. But as Logan Delponte piles up points with what looks like relative ease, a closer look reveals that any success has been the result of hard work and dedication.
Practice. School. Connecting with the youth program. That’s the process.
The Hillers’ 8-1 record has the team thinking big. But it’s still April. And when John Sanda, one of four captains, was asked about team goals, his coach held his arms out as if to say “pump the brakes” as the senior midfielder was about to respond.
“We just want to play our best lacrosse,” he said. “We’re not seeking anybody; we just want to be the best we can be.”
Delponte, also a senior captain, netted four goals and seven assists against Medway on Monday in a 14-2 victory. The effort carried over from the team’s play on non-game days.
“The competition in practice is unlike anything else,” said captain/defender Wyatt Iantosca, who added that the Hillers came ready to dominate before the calendar struck spring. “The eagerness to get out onto the field. The whole team throughout the fall and winter was excited to get team lifts and get out on the field and just build the group.”
“We battle at practice, but when we step off the lines, we come together as one family,” said Delponte, who will play at St. Bonaventure next year.
That bond has been strengthened through not only the will to improve but adversity.
Sophomore midfielder Chase O’Donnell has been battling leukemia for the past 14 months and will endure chemotherapy until next February. But he returned to the team this season and scored his first varsity goal on April 18 against Minnechaug.
O’Donnell scored again against Medway and continues to serve as an inspiration.
“Chase has been a strong backbone to our team,” Iantosca said. “He shows each and every day that he wants to compete. We’ve tried; he does not want credit. He just wants to be another player on the team. That’s kind of been the motto of our team this year: to just shut up and do some work.”
“Whenever you think you have it bad, that kid has been through more than anybody on this team,” Delponte said.
Jack Provencher, a senior defenseman/captain, says the entire O’Donnell family (Chase has three younger brothers; their father, Ed, is president of Hopkinton Youth Lacrosse) has lifted the team.
“They’re all such positive kids,” Provencher said. “They all just love lacrosse; it’s their whole life. You see them at every game. They’re the happiest family you’ll see and that positive attitude is contagious.”
Hopkinton wins fifth straight, 14-2, over Medway
The Hillers scored the first six goals of the game – including three in a 48-second span – to win their fifth consecutive game. Cooper Goodman netted three goals as Sam O’Brien and Matt Lotti added two apiece. Owen Champlin had a goal and two assists while Ryan Dacey finished with a goal and an assist.
Justin Dillard and Matt Plante scored for Medway.
Hopkinton led 10-1 at halftime and had little trouble putting away the Mustangs.
The Hillers won seven regular-season games two years ago before a slight improvement last year. But they may double the eight victories from last spring. All part of the process.
“The past four years, our program’s really changed,” Provencher said. “We’ve put a lot of effort recruiting younger players, going out to youth practices, getting to know some of these younger guys. Now that we’re seniors, it’s paying off.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached attdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Hopkinton boys lacrosse inspired by teammate battling cancer
