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Chargers are first-time champs
In his 10 years of coaching lacrosse, Kevin Broderick has given more than his share of pregame speeches. So before his Chantilly team boarded the bus to travel to Saturday's boys state championship game at Westfield High School, Broderick decided to let someone else do the talking.Assistant coach Bob Waters read the Chargers an email written by Michael Kimmel, son of his childhood friend and starting midfielder on the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team, which won the 2007 NCAA national championship and lost in this year's title game. Kimmel reminded Chantilly's players to "be smart and have poise like you have done all year," and told them the key would be to jump out early and show Oakton "that you will do whatever it takes to get this championship."
Kimmel's words had the desired effect, as the Chargers took a 4-0 lead after the first quarter and went on to beat the Cougars, 12-5, for the first state title in team history.
"It was exciting," Broderick said of Waters' pregame reading. "Coach Waters gets fired up, and he put a lot of emotion into it. We were happy to get on the bus. We couldn't wait to get going."
One of Kimmel's main points was that though Chantilly entered the state final with a 19-0 record, its players were not perfect. The Chargers were bound to make mistakes during the game, and it would be their ability to quickly overcome those mistakes that would decide the outcome.
Chantilly did indeed make some mistakes – mainly following an hour-long weather delay – and Oakton pulled within a goal late in the third quarter, but the Chargers maintained their composure and ended the game on a 6-0 run. Senior Jake Nolan put an exclamation point on Chantilly's perfect season with a behind-the-back goal that was eerily similar to a shot by Kevin O'Neill that sealed the Chargers' region title win over Oakton.
"Kevin O'Neill taught me everything I know," joked Nolan, who had two goals and one assist in the game. "I just tried to go for it. Never done it before in a game. It was a pretty good time."
Chantilly lived by the mantra 'One more' throughout this season, always looking for one more pass, one more shot and taking things one game at a time. That phrase was printed on t-shirts the players wore in school Friday before the state final. The Chargers assisted on seven of their 12 goals Saturday and recorded an astounding 182 assists on 260 goals in 2008 – a 70-percent assist rate.
"We were real confident in our ability to win games," said senior Corey Aferiat, who had three goals in the state final and 39 on the year. "We didn't want to focus on how good we thought we could be. We just took it one game at a time and tried to get the job done every time we got on the field."
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