Jon Barocas does not care who it is.
East High School’s boys lacrosse coach will yell just as loudly at a startled freshman reserve as he will a Division I-bound senior captain. He does not discriminate.
Even as the Angels, who are in the midst of their best season since winning a state championship in 2000, were cruising through the final minutes of an 11-1 rout of Golden on Tuesday, Barocas was inches from the ear of a reserve player screaming for him to get onto the field.
Barocas quickly turned to the sideline and caught the knowing looks from some of his seniors, smiled and said: “I yell with love in my voice. It’s just like saying, ‘I love you.”‘
It is a tough love sometimes, but one that has generated 328 career wins, five undefeated seasons, nine state championships (one since lacrosse was recognized by the Colorado High School Activities Association in 1999) and produced 26 All-Americans during Barocas’ 28 years at East.
But there is no time to reminisce. The playoffs start next week, and East has lost just one game all season – a bitter 5-3 decision to Kent Denver. In the Angels’ 13 victories, they have outscored the competition by an average of nearly 11-3, including a 7-6 win over defending state champ Cherry Creek.
For its efforts, East earned a plum playoff seed, a first-round bye and a spot on the opposite side of the bracket from Kent Denver and Cherry Creek, winners of the past five state titles.
East’s talent is unquestioned, but the real secret to its success is teamwork.
“We are a team. It’s not a couple of flat-out stars. We are a complete team,” said Zach Tedeschi, a four-year starter. “This is definitely the best team we’ve had in the four years that I’ve been playing here.”
The senior-laden Angels field arguably the best defense in the state with Dillon Roy, Ryan Burt, Tim Kashiwa and goalkeeper Piet Dudley, and the midfield and attack is loaded with talent – Johns Hopkins-bound Tedeschi, leading scorer Kjael Skaalerud, sophomore Josh Russell, Alex Vinton, Russell Clark and Bailey Connor as well as the injured but recovering Ben Allison.
“When we are on our game, I think we can play with anybody, anywhere. There were certain times during the season that we were unstoppable,” said Dudley, who goaltended in Boston the past two seasons.
Dudley, one of at least eight Angels who will play college lacrosse next season, has stopped 114 shots and allowed a state-low 34 goals among keepers with more than 315 minutes in the net. He might have more saves if the opposition could find a way to his crease. But Burt and Roy, a national defensive player of the year candidate headed to the University of Denver, make that difficult.
“Dillon and Ryan are hands-down the best defenders I’ve ever played with,” Dudley said.
Roy missed all but a couple of minutes of last season as he recovered from a fractured vertebra suffered while playing hockey, and the longstickman is making up for missed time.
“The heart of our team is defense,” Roy said. “We have four seniors who play as hard as we can, throw checks and try to keep teams from penetrating. And if they do, Piet is there to back us up.”
The 2006 Angels also have benefited from a coaching staff that Barocas infused with recent college standouts, including Ian Wright, a member of East’s 2000 state title team, and a strength and conditioning trainer.
Before games, Wright, the top defender for the University of Delaware Blue Hens the past two seasons, can be seen giving pointers on defensive positioning while Matt Rewkowski, a third-team All-American at Johns Hopkins, warms up Dudley with shot after shot.
“We bring on guys like that, former players who know the game, and the kids get hungry. They want to learn,” Barocas said. “For Matt to come here, to an inner-city school, is amazing. He could have gone anywhere. He could have gone to a school with locker rooms.”
Which leads to the uncertain future of East lacrosse.
Prep lacrosse is the fastest- growing sport in the state, according to the CHSAA, but the bulk of the expansion is happening in the suburbs. Schools that didn’t exist a few years ago – Cherokee Trail and Rock Canyon, for example – are trying to find a way to squeeze 100-plus kids onto the roster.
“As far as school numbers, Denver is not growing and the suburbs are exploding. We have to reach out and put sticks in the hands of little kids,” said Barocas, who will direct a summer camp for the Colorado Lacrosse Foundation to help introduce the sport to the next generation.
“East is a unique situation. It isn’t the ghetto, it’s the inner city, and kids want to be here and be a part of this program. At least, they better want to be here or they will hear about it,” Barocas said.
