Alumni Blog
Hermits Lacrosse Named Team of the Year
Congratulations to Coach Valore and the Lacrosse team for being named the Press of Atlantic City’s Team of the Year! Read the fantastic write-up and interview with Coach Valore below:
This was the deepest St. Augustine Prep team coach J.C. Valore has had in his 11 years coaching.
Any coach would be pleased to graduate one or two NCAA Division I college-bound players. Valore is graduating eight Division I players and all 11 seniors will play in college next year.
“Our seniors had a great four-year run because they really were the ones who ushered our program into this new independent schedule,” Valore said. “It’s been a lot of weight on their shoulders and they did a phenomenal job to establish our program.”
Among those seniors were attackmen Joe Eisele (36 goals) and John Fox (30 goals), defenders Nick DeCaprio and Jack Foster and goalie Ernie Alvino (.612 save percentage) that were first team Press All-Stars.
No big victories stood out this season for the Hermits, who went 15-5 in their tough independent schedule. The finished the season with an 11-6 loss to Delbarton in the state Non-Public A semifinals.
They did have big wins against Pennsylvania power Malvern Prep 16-6 to open the season as well as an 8-6 win over another top Pennsylvania team in Episcopal Academy on April 11.
“Some of our best wins were our losses,” Valore said. “I hope that makes sense.
“We learn so much from losing, and they were spread out to the point you have a few wins under your belt and that setback is beneficial on how we moved forward from a loss.”