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GBS Girls Lacrosse On Scoring Frenzy

April 3, 2012 By

(Journal Online) If Glenbrook South’s first two girls lacrosse games this spring are any indication, the Lady Titans will score a lot of goals.

They scored 31 of them in a loss to Lyons and a win over Evanston. C.C. Hoogland, a three-year varsity starter, has been the leading scorer, with 7 goals against Lyons in a 16-15 loss, and 5 more in a 16-6 win over Evanston.

“The Lyons game was a very good game, very even, and went back and forth throughout,” said Titan coach Annie Lesch. “We broke their stall at the end, transitioned the ball down to the other end, and ended the game with the last goal.”

The Titans have nine experienced seniors on their roster, so they should be very competitive this season in this emerging sport. In addition to Hoogland, seniors are Taeisha Barrett, Emily Frothingham, Jessie Dickman, Maureen Maginot, Lexi Rodgers, Molly Holden, Paige Cowgill, and Jackie Leibrandt. All played major roles in GBS’s top-eight finish in last year’s IHSWLA state tournament.

The 2012 roster also includes eight juniors – Caroline Collins, Grace Ridge, Morgan Nolan, Allie Sonneborn, Stephanie Mitchell, Rachel Mann, Kendall Krautsack, and Madeleine Salah. There are five sophomores and three freshmen.

The Titans biggest games this year are at New Trier on Apr. 17, and against defending state champion Loyola at home on Apr. 24.

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Lacrosse Gaining Notoriety With IHSA

March 8, 2012 By

Boys and girls high school lacrosse is slowly gaining popularity in Illinois, but the sport is still a tad short of gaining IHSA recognition.

As the sport’s sixth season begins in Illinois this month, there are about 60 boys teams and 38 girls teams in existence.

The IHSA (Illinois High School Association) has approved designation of lacrosse as an “emerging” sport, but has delayed starting a state tournament series until the 2012-13 season, at the earliest. It will do so, it says, when there are 65 boys teams and 40 girls teams participating in a state tournament.

A total of 56 boys teams participated in two state tournament series in 2011, and 38 teams played in the girls tourney.

“They will be looking at the 2012 state tournaments this spring to see how the participation is going, and then they will decide whether they will start a state series next year,” said Steve Rockrohr, Glenbrook South’s athletic director who is a member of the IHSA’s Advisory Committee for the sport.

“We’re close, and we’re hoping to get enough schools involved this year so we can get the IHSA involved next year,” he said. “It’s a big challenge now, because many school districts are cutting back and/or standing pat on athletic expenses, and when they go with the IHSA, schools have to pay all the costs of fielding teams.”

In the meantime, lacrosse remains a club sport, with state tournaments run by the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association (IHSLA) for boys, and Illinois High School Women’s Lacrosse Association (IHSWLA) for girls.

Eight schools in the Journal area have lacrosse programs.

There are four established girls programs at Loyola Academy, Glenbrook South, Palatine, and Fremd, and St. Viator is in the second year of developing a new program playing at the JV level.

Eight boys teams will be fielded this spring at Loyola, Glenbrook South, Notre Dame of Niles, Maine South, St. Viator, Conant, Fremd, and Palatine.

The state’s premier teams remain New Trier and Loyola Academy. New Trier won the 2011 boys title, and Loyola won the girls championship, both for the umpteenth times.

St. Viator also has a formidable program. The Lions made the boys final four last year. The Glenbrook South girls team made the girls final four in 2011. The Titans established the local area’s first high school lacrosse program back in the early 1990s.

Lacrosse, a popular sport at high schools and colleges in the east, is a combination of hockey and soccer.  A small ball is carried and passed among players and shot at a goal by use of a basket attached to a long handled stick, called a crosse.

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Titans lacrosse community a hit, on and off field

June 9, 2011 By

(Glenview Announcements)  Though Glenbrook South couldn’t get past nemesis Loyola in the IHSWLA playoffs this spring, it was a successful season all the same, as head coach Annie Lesch’s crew (13-5 overall) earned the No. 7 spot in the state power rankings.

The program has been on an upward climb ever since Lesch took the helm several years ago.

“She not only has done a great job with the high school girls, but Annie has promoted the game of women’s lacrosse with the junior high school girls,” said Rich Berkowitz, president of the GBS Parent Lacrosse Board. “Now our younger lacrosse players aspire to play for Annie at South. It perpetuates the great girls lacrosse tradition Annie is developing.”

In contrast to the girls program, the GBS boys team was not as successful in 2011, finishing 5-14. Typically one of the top teams in the state — behind New Trier and Loyola Academy — the Titans suffered a significant number of overtime losses and other one-goal defeats.

“I have never seen a team so snakebitten before,” said head coach Steven Brooks. “We would play great for three quarters — we’d be leading — but just couldn’t finish in the fourth quarter.”

Brooks, an All-America selection for perennial powerhouse Syracuse University, served in his first year as GBS skipper. He indicated that there were growing pains, as he and assistant Justin Porter instituted new defensive and offensive schemes.

“The defense seemed to come along faster than the offense,” Brooks lamented.

That defense was led by seniors Chris Schwanz (who will play at Ohio Wesleyan University next season), defensive midfielder Kevin Stevens (the 2011 GBS Brian Kennedy Award winner) and faceoff specialist Josh Berkowitz.

“Once the boys learned to trust what coach Porter and I were teaching them, the offense started to click,” Brooks said.

During the last 10 days of the season, senior attack Geoff Harty (who will play at the United States Merchant Marine Academy next season) — as well as sophomores Spencer Ford, Cam Irwin, Jack Washburn and Stuart Pomeroy — seemed to get untracked.

The Titans, who won three out of their last four regular-season games, beat Palatine in their first state playoff game but were eliminated by No. 1-ranked Loyola 12-4 in the second round.

“I think the boys learned a lot this year,” Brooks said. “And although we’re graduating 17 seniors, we are expecting great things, as we have a very talented group of sophomores returning next year.”

 

Off the field: Records aside, the best performance — by both teams — likely occurred off the field.

The two programs hold an annual mulch-sale fundraiser, during which players sell mulch in the community and deliver it the first Sunday in May, every year, to help support GBS boys and girls lacrosse programs. And this year’s version took on greater significance.

“When coach Brooks took over the team and heard about the fundraiser, he wanted to make it something special,” Berkowitz said. “(Brooks) thought it would be a great way to take this project and incorporate it into the Titan Booster Club’s Going Beyond Sports program, started several years ago by parent Rick Pullano.”

During a fall meeting of the Parent Lacrosse Board, it was decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.

“My mother died of cancer when I was a teenager, which obviously impacted my father, brothers, and me significantly,” Brooks said. “So I asked if we could donate a portion of the proceeds to a cancer research organization.”

After a brief discussion with the board, and mulch-sale chairmen Bill Frothingham and Tom Fox, it was decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to Children’s Memorial Hospital and pediatric cancer research.

Fox, whose daughter plays on the girls varsity team said, “What better cause than pediatric cancer research. I think many of us have been personally impacted by cancer in one way or another, and the players are certainly aware of some of the South students who are suffering from or have succumbed to this awful disease.”

Added Frothingham: “This is exciting, and I really think it teaches the student–athletes, simultaneously, how fortunate they are to be healthy and playing, and that giving to a good cause, such as this, is so important.”

Berkowitz said, “Our initial goal was to raise at least $2,500 for the cause, but we thought we wouldn’t be able to reach our goal, as we had a snafu with the mulch delivery from Ohio.”

The Ohio distributor who supplies the mulch was unable to deliver half of the order in time for the May 1 deadline.

“We weren’t sure what to do. This never happened in the past,” Berkowitz said. “Regardless of the cause, we have a one-day window to make the delivery because that’s what we sign up and plan for. We knew if we extended the sale to the next weekend we would incur extra costs for delivery, not to mention the difficulty in trying to get people to change their schedules for a second weekend in a row.”

But Frothingham and Fox said the GBS lacrosse community came up big.

“Rich sent out a compelling e-mail explaining what happened, and without hesitation people responded to us that they would be there,” Fox said. “This is why I love living in this community. When we really need help, especially for such a great cause, our athletes and their parents respond. We even had help from parents who don’t have players in the program.”

The student-athletes responded to the cause and sold over 50 tons of mulch this year in one of the most successful sales ever, but the club received an added surprise a couple of weeks after the delivery was completed.

“The owner of the mulch company felt so bad about what happened that he made an extremely gracious gesture,” Frothingham said.

“We couldn’t believe it when Dick Posey told us he wasn’t charging us for any delivery or for two of the six truckloads of mulch,” Berkowitz said. “When he did that, it made all of it worthwhile. With the students’ overwhelming hard work and the kind-of-heart gesture from Mr. Posey, we were able to cover our extra costs and double our donation to Children’s Memorial Hospital to $5,000.”


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Titans prove they belong with the best

May 27, 2011 By

(Glenview Announcements) In Anne Lesch’s five seasons, Glenbrook South has earned a place in the conversation as one of the best teams in Illinois named Loyola or New Trier.

The Titans took a big step this spring when they beat Lake Forest 17-6 to win a sectional championship. Since 2002, the Scouts have won two state titles and finished second in the state three other times.

But Glenbrook South ran into two-time defending state champion Loyola at the supersectional Wednesday and ended its season with a 21-9 loss.

“In the past two years, I would say on any given day we are one of the best four teams in the state,” Lesch said. “That’s where we’ve gotten to in my five years. The next goal is to be really competitive with Loyola and New Trier.”

After three consecutive losses in early April, the Titans closed the season by going 11-2-1 to finish 13-5-2. It was the second most wins under Lesch and extended the coach’s run to five winning seasons in a row.

“We were young at the beginning of the year,” said Lesch, who lost 13 seniors off last season’s 14-win club. “We had juniors and seniors, but most of them didn’t start or didn’t play much at all on varsity. From a coaching standpoint, we were really impressed how they improved throughout the season.”

Nicole Lander scored a team-high four goals in her final game with Glenbrook South and finished the season with 74. CC Hoogland added two goals.

Lander was one of three starters back, along with senior Nicole Pullano and junior Jackie Liebrandt. Senior goalie Stephanie Sparrow saw lots of action last season, too.

“But our other starters this year had not been up against top competition,” Lesch said. “They got into games last year, but they played against the weaker opponents.”

Sofie Dial was the other standout senior this spring for the Titans, who look to rebuild their roster around Hoogland and Liebrandt.

“Sofie really improved on defense,” the coach said. “She gained a lot of confidence and became aggressive, winning ground balls and draw controls. She became a real impact player we depended on.”

Lesch also hopes to count on juniors Molly Holden, Jen Fox, Lexi Rodgers and Jessie Dickman, and sophomores Steph Mitchell and Caroline Collins next season.

With an eye toward the distant future, Lesch said Glenview’s youth lacrosse program is adding girls. Also helping is that Glenbrook South assistant coach Devin McCue is one of the directors for the Illinois Girls Lacrosse Association. McCue played at Loyola before continuing her career at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

“We are very optimistic about the future,” Lesch said.

 

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Offense Propels Titans to Sectional Title

May 24, 2011 By

(Glenview Patch) Barely a minute in, Glenbrook South’s CC Hoogland fired a shot that hit the right post and bounced away. Two minutes later, Lake Forest’s Isabelle Montagne scored the game’s first goal, giving the Scouts an early 1-0 lead.

But as Glenbrook South has learned throughout this season, lacrosse is all about confidence, and from there it was complete domination for the Titans. Glenbrook South scored four consecutive goals in the ensuing four minutes and beat Lake Forest, 17-6, to win the IHSLWA Highland Park Sectional.

“On offense we were just driving in and flooding the ball, but then we really got a good motion going and we were working together,” midfielder Jackie Leibrandt said. “That’s what our offense is really good at.”

Leibrandt led the offensive barrage for Glenbrook South, scoring six goals, including five in the first half. She got the Titans on the board, beating her defender with a spin move and setting up an easy shot on target. A minute later, senior Nicole Lander scored off a free position to give Glenbrook South the lead for good.

“Multiple people are a threat out there, which is great because whoever has the good matchup can take it,” said Glenbrook South coach Annie Lesch, whose team had six different players score on Monday afternoon.

Midway through the first half, Lake Forest took advantage of a free position to cut the lead to 7-3, But Glenbrook South closed strong. Leibrandt scored three straight goals, including her last with 15 seconds on the clock.

Still the Titans weren’t finished. Glenbrook South won the draw control clean and Nicole Pullano found Molly Holden in front of the net for an easy put-away with three seconds left to give Glenbrook South an 11-3 halftime lead.

“I felt like all over the field we were capitalizing on the mistakes and finishing with a goal,” Lesch said.

Glenbrook South extended the lead out to 17-3 before Lake Forest closed with three goals in the final five minutes.

Senior goalie Stephanie Sparrow didn’t face many shots, but answered the call when challenged. She had a big save immediately following a Lake Forest timeout in the first half and started off the second half catching a Lake Forest attacker’s shot.

Glenbrook South’s defense didn’t let Lake Forest get off a lot of shots, but the Titans’ offense was its best weapon to keeping Lake Forest off the scoreboard.

“We did win a couple ground balls that were key and just keeping possession of the ball on our attacking end is key,” Lesch said.

Lander finished with four goals for Glenbrook South while Hoogland chipped in three scores.

Glenbrook South advances to play defending state champion Loyola Academy in the Super Sectional at the Ramblers’ Glenview campus. Loyola beat Glenbrook South, 19-3, on April 12, but the Titans remain confident.

“We just have to keep our heads up and not let their numbers at state scare us and hope our offense and defense will play like we did today,” Leibrandt said.

“I think we’ve grown as a team, we’ve continued to improve with every game,” Lesch added. “I’m hoping we can take what we learned with our tough games against Lake Forest and take that into [Super Sectional].

 

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Powerhouses Provide Regular Competition For GBS Girls Lacrosse

May 5, 2011 By

(Journal Online) There are only four girls high school lacrosse teams in the Journal area right now, but they are a pretty special group.

One of them is both state and nationally ranked, and another is ranked among the top 10 teams in Illinois.

Loyola Academy’s Ramblers are currently 14-2 this season and ranked second in the state by the Illinois High School Women’s Lacrosse Association (ISHWLA). Ordinarily, the Ramblers would be among the teams favored to reach the final four in the upcoming ISHWLA state tournament. But the Ramblers are in the same sectional this month as New Trier, widely regarded as the top team nationally as well as in the state.

“Only one of them will get out of that sectional, and then we will have to play them in the semifinals, assuming we will get out of our sectional,” said Annie Lesch, coach of the Glenbrook South Titans.

But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. The Titans will probably find out how good they are next Monday, May 9, when they meet New Trier in Northfield in a regular season contest. The Titans are 6-3-2 overall and 3-0 in the Central Suburban Conference, which also includes New Trier, Glenbrook North, Deerfield, and Evanston.

The Titans also have regular-season games left against Barrington, Lake Forest, and Stevenson.

The Titan program has been a winning one ever since GBS launched it a few years ago. The trouble is, they have to compete with powerhouses New Trier and Loyola every year, both in their conference and in the post-season.

“This year, we have mostly juniors and seniors,” Lesch said this week. “I thought at the beginning of the season we would be building this year because the players were inexperienced. But now, they have meshed together nicely and we’re doing very well.”

Glenbrook is ranked 7th in the latest ISHWLA poll among the state’s 40 teams. The Titans will be top-seeded in the Highland Park sectional, in which competition opens on May 17 and continues through May 23.

Statewide, this sport is still somewhat unbalanced. For several years, it’s been New Trier and Loyola and then everyone else. The Trevians and Ramblers were among the first schools to field lacrosse teams back in the 1990s.

Girls teams play in eight conferences in the Chicago area. In addition to GBS and New Trier in the Central Suburban, Loyola plays as an independent team and Palatine and Fremd are in the Mid Suburban Conference.

Palatine is 1-4 and in second place in the MSC, and Fremd is winless so far in 6 games.

Almost all of the 40 schools that are now participating with the IHSWLA are working to obtain the sanction of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), the organization that governs high school sports in Illinois. The 40 girls teams currently active are the minimum the IHSA says are needed to permit sanction in the 2011-12 season. If that happens, the first IHSA girls lacrosse state tournament would be held in May 2012.

 

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Sparrow returns to guard Glenbrook South net

April 5, 2011 By

(Pioneer Press) Stephanie Sparrow isn’t one of Glenbrook South’s true returning starters, but the senior got the best experience a player can ask for at the end of last season.

Sparrow was forced into a starting position after goalie Megan Zande suffered an ACL injury before the playoffs. She responded by helping the Titans reach the sectional championship match, highlighted by her performance in the team’s 9-3 win over Lake Forest in the sectional semifinals.

“She was huge in the playoffs, and she had an amazing game,” said fifth-year Glenbrook South coach Annie Lesch. “That was one of the top teams in the state.”

Seniors Nicole Lander and Nicole Pullano, and junior Jackie Leibrandt, are the three starters back for the Titans, who finished 14-7 last year, and one game behind New Trier in the CSL at 4-1.

The good news for GBS is that all three veterans man different areas of the field. Lander is an attacker, Pullano is a defensive midfielder and Leibrandt plays defense.

Glenbrook South started the 2011 season at Montini’s invitational last month. The Titans went 1-4, beating Oak Park-River Forest, and then tied Libertyville 9-9 on March 23.

“One of our strengths is our composure under pressure,” Lesch said.

Other players expected to contribute are seniors Laura Hanley and Linnea Karlson, and juniors Lexi Rogers and CC Hoogland.

“We are a very young team, but we are very motivated and hard-working,” the coach said. “It’s a very fun group to coach because I see them improve every day.”

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