North Shore boasts new core

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As is the case with many high school sports teams, large senior classes come and go, leaving opportunity for new leaders. For the North Shore boys’ lacrosse program and coach Aaron Kozlowski, this situation had occurred, except nearly the whole roster was lost to graduation.

“We graduated basically everyone,” Kozlowski said. “We had a total revamp, but we have an interesting and exciting bunch of young guys ready to step up. Now we need to get them game experience.”

After a 13-4 (6-4 in Conference C) 2017 season with multiple D1 exports for Kozlowski, he will look to a younger group to regenerate success for this accomplished program.

Junior midfielder Stephen Grabher is one such Vikings’ player with ample game experience. He is an aggressive, push-forward middie with 20 goals and 8 assists last season as a sophomore. The Army commit brings a sense of toughness and grit to a squad building a new identity. One way or another, that identity will run through Grabher.

Freshman attackman Forrest Demetri is unlike many players his age. Achieving a 30-point season as an eighth-grader just a year ago, Demetri looks to continue to grow as a valued player and rising star in Nassau County. “He’s learning the nuances of being a varsity attacker,” Kozlowski said. “We need him to act more like a junior…but he is handling the physicality well even at his age.”

Junior Mike Albanese was a third attackman last year, but will see time as the second offensive option. Junior Rich Cuite will hold down the defensive unit as three of his brothers on the defensive half of the field last year are now playing collegiate lacrosse at the Division I level. “He went from guarding the other team’s third-best player to matching up with the other team’s best player,” Kozlowski said of Cuite.

As for his defensive plans, Kozlowski believes a good balance is needed and when the defense is rolling, the team as a whole follows. “The way we play defense hasn’t changed. We like a good, high-pressure on the ball with good team defense behind that,” Kozlowski said. “We’ll be at our best defensively when we’re not thinking, just reacting and moving comfortably out there. The better our defense can be, the better our team can be.”

Kozlowski’s defensive focuses were one-half of what he wanted to key in on during the early portion of non-league play. The other, he says, is ‘offensive chemistry’. “Our offense isn’t usually a set with a specific endpoint… We want to get high quality shots and keep working the ball around, and that comes with offensive chemistry,” Kozlowski said.

The Vikings are ready to return success now, with a hard-working mentality and skill to back it up.

“These young guys are super ready to learn,” Kozlowski said. “We’re working now, so the best we’ll be will come the second week of May (playoff time).”

North Shore’s first conference game comes against Friends Academy on April 13 at home.