| The Crown Jewel of the Emerald City Fueled by N.Y. trip, Mercer Island eyeing another Washington state title By Jeff Capellini LaxPower.com Correspondent |
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Respect. Everybody seems to want it, but few do what it requires. The old adage states that respect is something earned. It’s not automatic. It’s not a birthright. In the high school lacrosse world, it doesn’t come simply from winning a few games or scoring a lot of goals. Respect is gained from playing and competing well against teams you are not necessarily expected to beat. Mercer Island High School coach Ian O’Hearn knows this all too well, but for a long time had no way to show the country that his program is more than the jewel of the Pacific Northwest. O’Hearn’s Islanders are currently the top-ranked team in the state of Washington and have made four straight trips to the Washington High School Boys' Lacrosse Association Division I championship game. They have won their last 35 games against in-state competition, dating to a loss in the 2003 state final.  Located on the east side of Seattle on Lake Washington, Mercer Island is also the odds-on favorite to win the championship this year, which would be its second straight and third in five years. One would think being regarded as the best team in the entire state on a yearly basis would be enough to satisfy a community’s ego.O’Hearn doesn’t think so. He wants the rest of the country to not just acknowledge that they play the game in Washington, but that some of those teams are also worthy of the type of praise teams in states such as California have recently received. “The top teams in Washington are just as good as the top teams in California,” said O’Hearn, a native of Loudonville, N.Y., who graduated from SUNY Albany in 2000. “They just get more attention because they have 137 teams and 29 million people living in the state. If you break it down by city, San Diego has 33 programs. Greater San Francisco has 42. Greater Portland has 33, and then Seattle has 27.” “There are only three million people in all of Washington,” O’Hearn added. “There has been high school lacrosse in Seattle for the last 20 years, but there weren’t that many teams. We have more teams than Albany but not as many as Syracuse or Buffalo. If you look at it by city, we are doing really well.” Last year O’Hearn decided to put his team’s reputation and skill to the test. He took the Islanders to New York for a pair of games. He said they played well in a close loss to Fayetteville-Manlius of Syracuse and should have played better in a somewhat lopsided loss to Albany Academy. Inspired by the experience, O’Hearn decided to forego the usual West Coast road trips this season for a more in-depth trip through New York. “In the past, we used to go to this tournament in Santa Fe, New Mexico,” O’Hearn said. “It was far away, real expensive, and the competition wasn’t that great. I said if we are going to spend all this money, let’s go out East and get some real competition. “I wanted my kids to see what East Coast lacrosse is all about because, in my opinion, upstate New York is the best lacrosse in the country,” O’Hearn added. “It’s a learning experience for us, and it was a great chance to get some exposure for our program.”  So back in April, Mercer Island went on a grueling seven-day, five-game odyssey through upstate New York in search of worthy opponents. The Islanders got more than they bargained for.The days of beating league opponents by 10-15 goals quickly faded as Mercer Island got a first-hand look at some of the best teams New York has to offer that are not on Long Island. Mercer Island played well but came away with just one win in its five games. The Islanders toured the western part of the state first, losing 13-4 to Orchard Park, largely considered the best team in the region. Two days later they found themselves near Syracuse, where they lost 10-5 to Skaneateles, which made the Class C finals in 2002. The Islanders followed up those losses with a 12-6 defeat to Corning East, a participant in nine Class B state championship games since 1989. Mercer Island captain and midfielder Chris Taylor, who was recently named All-American, said he saw some similarities between his team and the first three New York schools it faced but on a much less complex level. ”As a program, our coaches have attempted to fuse East Coast styles into our offenses and defense,” said Taylor, who will play at Georgetown next year. “However, there is a huge difference in the stick skills in the East, with most of them having played since elementary or middle school. The game is also a lot faster, and there is a lot more ball movement and strategy unlike some schools out here where it's just run and gun and very football-esque.” Teammate Ben York saw other differences. “We knew we were going to play teams the caliber of which we knew we’ve never seen before, so it was a little nerve-wracking,” said York, considered by many to be the finest face-off man in his state and who will be attending Division III’s Bowdoin next season. “We were playing teams with players who were being recruited by D-I schools.” Regardless of the final scores, Corning East coach Bob Streeten said if more teams in Washington can get to a level of a Mercer Island, then the Pacific Northwest will have its pick of states to visit and games to play. “The Mercer Island team was a well-coached team of excellent athletes,” Streeten said. “I believe they would be extremely competitive in our area once they adjusted to the level of ‘physical’ play that is practiced in this area. Their stick skills were just as good as any of the top teams in our area. “Their coach should be lauded for bringing his group all the way back East to test themselves,” Streeten continued. “I was extremely impressed with the athletic ability and well conditioned athletes that they played at midfield. Corning East would welcome another opportunity in the future to play them.”  The results got better on the scoreboard when Mercer Island got to Albany, a region that has made strides in recent years but is still well behind the established hot beds of Long Island and Syracuse in both quality and quantity of top-notch competition.Mercer Island defeated Latham Shaker, one of Albany’s most respected programs and O’Hearn’s alma mater, 11-8, before losing to Guilderland, 10-8. Sean McConaghy, head coach at Guilderland, said if Mercer Island played in New York it would be an upper echelon team in Section 2. “Their coaches were knowledgeable about the game, and it showed in the adjustments they made at the half against us,” McConaghy said. “The players were all athletic and had decent stick skills. They had at least three players who would be considered exceptional wherever they play, whether it be New York, Maryland, or Washington.” While the praise was nice, York would rather have come home with a few more victories. “I think we could have one at least one more game,” York said. “We could have kept some of the others closer. We could have played better, but it was definitely a success. “I think (most of the New York teams) had more depth,” he added. “They were used to playing against real good teams. We were used to playing bad teams. They had no problem turning their game to a higher level.” Mercer Island, now 21-4, followed up the somewhat humbling experience with 12 straight wins. The Islanders next hope their superior skills and experience take over. Taylor, who has 48 goals and 74 points this season, will team with first-team all-state attackman David Sandman (44, 79), defenseman Ben Wickizer, and goalie Noah Symington, as well as second-team middies Kevin Mahony (77, 118) and York (47, 73), when the Islanders take on Garfield, a team they beat by just one a few weeks ago, in Wednesday’s state semifinals. Taylor said there is a tremendous amount of pressure on his team to continue its run and win another state title. He also said the season will not be a total waste if the Islanders come up short because they have grown and learned a lot about themselves individually. However, make no mistake, nobody would take a loss lightly. “It will be a huge disappointment if we do not win the state championship,” Taylor said. “I think we hold ourselves up to certain expectations, and failing to meet these expectations would only be letting ourselves down. We have all the tools necessary. It’s just up to us to put them together and have it click.”  Though all signs point to Mercer Island leaving Qwest Field, home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, on Saturday with the championship trophy, there is at least one team still alive that deserves credit for its continued excellence.Bainbridge Island, Mercer’s natural rival considering it is located on the Puget Sound on the west side of Seattle, is currently 13-6 and ranked fourth according to LaxPower.com. While its record may not be that of Mercer Island’s, the Spartans have advanced to the state championship every year since 1992, winning seven straight titles from 1994-2000. If Bainbridge can get by the state’s second-ranked team in Issaquah at home on Wednesday, the two most storied programs in the history of a state tournament that dates to 1979 will renew acquaintances in the season’s biggest game. Not that Mercer Island needs to beat Bainbridge again or anyone else to get statewide respect. “When you go through the whole state and beat everybody, what’s one more win? Everyone out here knows what we are all about,” O’Hearn said. “If we don’t win a state championship, it’s because we didn’t come to play. Nobody is better than us on the field if we show up and play our game.” But there’s obviously more on the line this week for Mercer Island than Washington bragging rights. “If we can’t win our own state title, how can we justify calling ourselves one of the best teams on the West Coast?” O’Hearn said. “Who is honestly going to tell somebody, we’re glad we played hard? It’ll be a big letdown if we don’t take home the prize.” Especially considering the roads traveled. Pictures courtesy of Mercer Island Lacrosse Jeff Capellini is a former Division III college player in upstate New York who is currently an internet sports editor at The Associated Press in New York City. He lives in Westchester County with his wife and son. He can be reached by private message on the Forum to Excalibur17 or by e-mail at jeff@laxpower.com. |
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