The Foster Roster

The+Foster+Roster

Spring is right around the corner, which means sports switch from an inside surface to the fresh air and sunshine outside. That’s right; it is lacrosse, baseball, tennis, and track season. Over the past five years, the Ipswich Tigers’ most successful spring sports team has been lacrosse. For decades, the majority of kids who played a spring sport, played baseball. Now, a lot of athletes who played baseball, went to lacrosse or just played lacrosse their entire lives. But why though? We asked Ben Yanakakis, our fellow classmate and current captain, Kevin Swenson, an IHS lax alum who is currently playing lacrosse at Umass Dartmouth, and Glen Foster, an Ipswich athletic legend, each a series of questions about their experiences with the sport and predictions on the 2019 edition of the team.

Ipswich ended last season with a loss against Austin Prep in the Massachusetts State Division 3 North final, which was the 4th straight  year making it to the tournament for the club. This includes three North Sectional Championships and a state title. Ipswich looks to replace about a dozen key seniors, including five league all stars, with new and hungry players. When asked who could replace last years players, senior captain Ben Yanakakis has faith that the young core can help to continue the run of great team success. “We have a lot of fairly inexperienced players and will have to be thrown in the fire, but I believe that Ethan Jean-Charles, Will Ginolfi and Justin Bruhm can step into new and important roles.” Yanakakis, a three sport captain and a state champion knows what it takes to get the job done for the team. “Being a three sport captain is an honor. It is a real testament to past teammates teaching me the right way on how to do things and how to be.” Yanakakis also believes that the 2019 Tigers could make another run at a state championship early this summer.

Coach Glenn Foster has been around the game of lacrosse for over fifty years. He has seen the good, the bad and everything in between while coaching Ipswich for nearly thirty five years. Similarly to his captain, Foster noted that the team, while young, is very talented and riddled with returning stars and key players who he expects to step up and make an immediate impact.

The question that the team is wondering is: how will new starting goalie, Erik Anderson, do in replacing the previous three year starter, Aidan McAdams? “Erik and Aidan play very different styles in net”, Ben Yanakakis said. “With Aiden, he was the backbone of the team, without him there is no team. Aidan was a very well rounded goalie that was solid in most aspects of the position. With Erik, he sees the field and communicates well. Erik is a great goalie.” In front of Anderson is a high quality defensive core of Jack Sotiropoulos, Cade McAdams, Clayton Manolian, Jayden Halecki and incoming players Cole Terry and Eagan Davidson.

Another high quality player Ipswich has to replace is Kevin Swenson. The attackman now plays at UMass Dartmouth and also has high hopes for his former teammates. “I could see a CAL championship and a long playoff run if they listen to Foster’s wise words of wisdom. The Tigers could make a dark horse type of run.” Ethan Jean- Charles is slated to replace Swenson on the field but won’t quite be able to replicate the personality that he brought.

As the temperature heats up, so will the expectations for the Tigers. Only two years removed from a state title victory, the youthful Ipswich team looks hungry for similar success and another banner hanging in the gym rafters… Stay tuned.