By Zack Martino

The start of the 2018 lacrosse season will mark the next chapter in the relatively short history of both the boys and girls programs at Hackettstown High School.

The Tigers boys team, beginning its third varsity season, will be led by nine seniors looking to build off of its ten win season in 2017. Returning seniors include Ben Arcona, Zach Bergeron, AJ D’Innocenzio, Max Lake, Austin WIllis, and Robbie Decker.

In addition to the upperclassmen, Hackettstown will feature a younger set of players ready to make an impact. According to head coach Pat Shea, this “youth movement” will be led by sophomore and long stick midfielder, Dan Ferrara.

Ferrara was featured on the NJ Herald’s Top-50 Freshman Performance list and, in his coach’s opinion, should be on the All-State watch list.

The girls team is coming off of a 6-9 season in 2017 and notched a first round county tournament win against High Point.

After last season, the first varsity campaign for the girls, head coach Stevie Klie has a very basic goal coming into 2018.

“Our goal this year is to continue to persevere with a young team and improve our record to winning,” Klie said.

Like the boys team, the girls team will feature many key returning players. This includes junior midfielder Megan Baker, who was named 1st Team All-Conference with 18 goals, 5 assists and 36 ground balls, and senior defender Julee Delellis, who was an Honorable Mention All-Conference with 43 ground balls and 2 goals

As a whole, the team will have 12 players from 2017 return in 2018 with a good class of freshmen ready to take the field.