Lacrosse team shows
high level of caring
The coaches and players of the
New Hope-Solebury boys’ lacrosse
team demonstrated their high level
of caring and class by making Jake
Saxton, a young boy afflicted with
spinal muscular atrophy, their honorary
co-captain this past season,
participating in activities to raise
awareness of the disease, and raising
more than $10,000 to help find
a cure.
Moreover, as a former varsity
collegiate lacrosse player, youth
lacrosse coach, and middle-school
lacrosse coach, and currently head
men’s lacrosse coach at Arcadia
University, I must note how
impressed I’ve been with the excellent
coaching and play by the team
at the several games I’ve attended
this year – especially for such a relatively
young team.
I see great things in the team’s
future, including its ability to compete
with the best high school
teams in Southeastern
Pennsylvania.
Les Sdorow, Ph.D.
Solebury
Intelligencer lacrosse notebook: New Hope nets first winning season
By: Drew Markol
phillyBurbs.com
By Drew Markol
Staff Writer
The first time most of his players saw a lacrosse stick, let alone picked one up, was when they were freshmen in high school.
Despite that hurdle, the New Hope-Solebury boys lacrosse team needs to be commended for just finishing off what was a remarkable season.
A dismal 0-19 just two years ago, in coach Pat Ryan’s first season, the Lions improved to 10-7 this year — the first winning season in school history.
They didn’t qualify for the district playoffs, one of the team’s goals before the season, but they made a lot of noise and gained invaluable experience heading into 2011.
“It was just a great year and I’m very proud of the kids,” Ryan said. “They’ve been buying into what we want to do and they worked really hard. You can’t ask for more than that.”
The Lions scored nice wins over Central Bucks South and North Penn, two victories that let them know they were on the right path.
“Beating CB South and North Penn — both those schools are huge — was great for our team,” Ryan said. “Our school has about 400 kids. That’s when it dawned on them that they were playing pretty well.
“We still had our ups and downs this season, but overall, things were great for this team.”
Junior John Cimbalista became the first player in school history — the program started in 2000 — to record back-to-back 30-goal seasons. And while he had another strong season, his freshman brother, Jeff, led the team in scoring.
“We’re only losing two seniors from this year’s team and are just loaded with youth,” Ryan said. “And our defense was just outstanding all season.”
That defense allowed just a meager 6½ goals a game.
One thing that Ryan would like to do is form a feeder program. Some of his players play in the Central Bucks Athletic Association, but most don’t.
“The CBAA has been great for our kids, but it would be nice to have our own youth program,” Ryan said. “We only have lacrosse in high school, and my juniors this year never played organized lacrosse until they came to the high school.a youth program off the ground, but it hasn’t happened. But we’ll keep trying and these kids will keep working to get better.”
By Frank Seravalli
Correspondent
New Hope-Solebury head coach Patrick Ryan wasn’t sure what to expect last year, his first at the helm.
It probably wasn’t close to the 0-19 regular season that followed. A winless season is tough for any coach, but coming from Garnet Valley - a program steeped in winning tradition - made it even tougher to swallow.
But Ryan had a plan.
While it may take longer than most, especially at a school like New Hope a smaller enrollment, Ryan’s four-year plan already has the Lions on a path to success.
New Hope-Solebury (3-3) notched its first win in over two years with a victory in their first game against William Allen on March 20.
“Last year we didn’t graduate one senior, so the guys that came back this season felt that they had something to prove,” Ryan said. “I think that last season was definitely our motivating factor. It has been our battle cry for this season.”
The Lions’ other two wins came over Devon Prep and Delco Christian, but the real proof in their progress can be seen in losses to Academy of the New Church and Princeton (N.J.) Day School. Both losses were by one goal (both 8-7) to teams that had beaten them handily last year.
It would be easy to point to John Cimbalista and his team leading 16 goals as the reason for the Lions’ success. And Kevin Fabrizio has chipped in with 9 tallies. But Ryan says that the supporting cast around New Hope’s scorers has been their biggest asset.
Goaltender Michael Heffernan and defensemen Tom Sutton, Patrick Carvalho and Kramer Kaufelds have kept opponents to just 6.5 goals per game this year.
“I say it a lot, but those players really are the unsung heroes of our team,” Ryan said.
The best part is that just one of those players - Kaufelds - is a senior. The bulk of the Lions’ team is a core of sophomores and juniors.
For now, Ryan knows that his team still has its best lacrosse left in them.
“We still haven’t put together a good game yet,” he said. “We haven’t played to our full potential.
“It is hard to get it out of them. We still have lapses. I think that is the thing about last season, it has been our motivating factor but it has also been like that skeleton in the closet. We’re learning how to win.”
Male Team of Week:
New Hope-Solebury
performing two acts for the community
By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/6/
The New Hope-Solebury boys’ lacrosse team has performed one major act of community service and is gearing to participate in another.
The Lions, who have been named thePhillylacrosse.com/Athlete’s Advantage Scholastic Male Team of the Week, helped the Doylestown chapter of the American Red Cross relocate its disaster relief organization from downtown Doylestown to a temporary location in New Britain on March28.
The move comes as the Red Cross establishes a new headquarters in Bucks County.
“The team was eager to lend a helping hand,” said NHS coach Patrick Ryan “When you have an opportunity to give back to the community you do it without question, and our boys recognized that and proudly went out after morning practice and moved cots, blankets and boxes.
“It was rewarding on many levels, for everyone involved.”
New Hope also will give its time to volunteer on Saturday, April 25 at the Variety Day at Sesame Place for Children with Autism. The annual event, in its third year, features a full day activities for children with autism as well as their families. The event is run by Variety – the Children’s Charity of Bucks County.
Ryan said the New Hope players will help organize a race and then chaperone youngsters through the event, which features rides and other activities. Ryan, in his second year as coach of the Lions, said a parent of one of his players owns the Mangar Medical Packaging company which helped to transport the Red Cross supplies. The parent also encouraged Ryan to get involved in the Variety event.
"Parents have been pushing extra activities for us," Ryan said. "Our program hadn't been that successful on the field. All of a sudden, this year we have turned it around and we're 3-3 so far through six games.
"It's great to see the kdis succeeding on the field and even better to see them doing positive things off the field. They are starting to understand more of what athletics can bring to them as opposed to just winning and losing."
To nominate a squad for the Athlete's Advantage Male Team of the Week, e-mail us atgolax@phillylacrosse.com. Special consideration is given to teams that perform community service 
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