TicketsCINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team is set to begin its fall season Saturday at Louisville, complete with contests Youngstown State, University of Indianapolis and the host Cardinals. GoBearcats.com caught up with head coach Gina Thomas to get her pulse on the campaign.
What are your immediate thoughts on the fall season?
"I think it's exciting. We have a lot of newness where it's a lot like Christmas morning and you get presents. We have two new coaches and a lot of newbies. It's a lot of fresh blood and eyes coming in, making for a new vibe and team. We get to play this weekend and look forward to being surprised by little things with everyone, newcomers included."
COVID-19 affected much of the roster in some way, but particularly with freshmen based on their home states and high school seasons. What have you seen out of them?
"A lot of the kids got to work out this summer with us, in addition to on their own to physically be ready to come back. Across the board, there were a lot of different states of kids who could play a lot where others couldn't, but a decent amount of kids got half of their season and were able to get a lot of work on their own."
Going off of that, what can you expect from a leadership standpoint?
"We had half of a fall last year, so our sophomores are technically freshmen because they don't really have an idea of how a normal fall works. We are relying on our seniors and juniors to tell them how it's supposed to work and what Cincinnati Lacrosse is all about. We have 10-12 kids to show everyone the way, and even the juniors had a fall but the spring season cut short. Outside of the real small senior class, it's again like Christmas morning with finding out who we are and what we can do since we don't know a lot yet."
What would you characterize as strengths and areas to improve?
"The strength is that we are real deep and athletic in the midfield. We are bringing back two experienced goalies as well with a strong freshman arriving. I know we'll have someone to get the job done at all three. A weakness would be that we lost a ton of production, especially in attacking and defense, so with that leadership, it's exciting to see what upperclassmen or even younger ones come in and become the leaders, whether it be on defense or the quarterback of our offense."
What do you want to have as your final takeaways on Saturday?
"We pride ourselves on competition and competing. At the end of the day, we want to come out on top. But with this fall, we want to evaluate ourselves as coaches to know if we've prepared our team mentally and physically to compete against another team and be disciplined. It's also about putting people in different positions to see where they can be successful and giving our leaders the opportunity to lead. Because we lost so much on both sides of the ball, we want to evaluate who can handle different responsibilities for the season."
What are your immediate thoughts on the fall season?
"I think it's exciting. We have a lot of newness where it's a lot like Christmas morning and you get presents. We have two new coaches and a lot of newbies. It's a lot of fresh blood and eyes coming in, making for a new vibe and team. We get to play this weekend and look forward to being surprised by little things with everyone, newcomers included."
COVID-19 affected much of the roster in some way, but particularly with freshmen based on their home states and high school seasons. What have you seen out of them?
"A lot of the kids got to work out this summer with us, in addition to on their own to physically be ready to come back. Across the board, there were a lot of different states of kids who could play a lot where others couldn't, but a decent amount of kids got half of their season and were able to get a lot of work on their own."
Going off of that, what can you expect from a leadership standpoint?
"We had half of a fall last year, so our sophomores are technically freshmen because they don't really have an idea of how a normal fall works. We are relying on our seniors and juniors to tell them how it's supposed to work and what Cincinnati Lacrosse is all about. We have 10-12 kids to show everyone the way, and even the juniors had a fall but the spring season cut short. Outside of the real small senior class, it's again like Christmas morning with finding out who we are and what we can do since we don't know a lot yet."
What would you characterize as strengths and areas to improve?
"The strength is that we are real deep and athletic in the midfield. We are bringing back two experienced goalies as well with a strong freshman arriving. I know we'll have someone to get the job done at all three. A weakness would be that we lost a ton of production, especially in attacking and defense, so with that leadership, it's exciting to see what upperclassmen or even younger ones come in and become the leaders, whether it be on defense or the quarterback of our offense."
What do you want to have as your final takeaways on Saturday?
"We pride ourselves on competition and competing. At the end of the day, we want to come out on top. But with this fall, we want to evaluate ourselves as coaches to know if we've prepared our team mentally and physically to compete against another team and be disciplined. It's also about putting people in different positions to see where they can be successful and giving our leaders the opportunity to lead. Because we lost so much on both sides of the ball, we want to evaluate who can handle different responsibilities for the season."