Thursday, April 19, 2018

2018 End of Regular Season
I know that it has been a long time since my last update, but who reads blogs anymore anyways....

If you are still reading, I thank you and it has been an incredible ride so far.  We have taken such tremendous strides over not only this past year, but during our 8 short years as a program.  As it stands today, April 19th, 2018 we are currently sitting at #17 in the Southern Division of all D3 Schools.  We are ranked over traditional powerhouses Stevenson and Washington College and really picking up steam.  We finished the 2018 season with a record of 12-3 overall and the #2 seed in the SAA tournament.  We were able to beat Sewanee 14-12 last weekend to secure that spot and will play host to the winner of this Fridays game between the Hendrix/Sewanee game, and if all goes well advance to the Championship next weekend of April 28th (my birthday).  I could not dream of a better gift to not only receive, but give my first recruited class of Seniors.  It has been a wild and crazy 4 years with these guys and I am incredibly proud of the transformation these young-men have made and I know that they are going to be successful in Business and Life.
  This past seasons journey has been one filled with challenges and adversity as not only a coaching staff, but a team.  In the Fall we found out that our lockerroom was going to be under construction for the duration of the season, which will be nice once it is completed here in mid-May, but has posed some challenges for the guys.  We have since been relocated to the Men's Soccer Locker room which as you can imagine is a little tight.  Additionally, it is on the other side of our 'Worlds Largest Campus' and has provided some logistical problems.  Rather than complain, we embraced it and made Thursday night a jog to and from practice night, where both myself and the other coaches join in the jog.  Our early season saw some injuries and some disciplinary actions by myself that kept our roster in constant shuffle but we were able to win all of the games that we knew we could, a couple that took us to the next level, and one against 15th Nationally ranked Christopher-Newport where we lost a heart breaker 10-9.  This would have propelled us into the National Top 20, which is an ultimate goal of my own.  Even though we lost this one, we rebounded with a solid series of home games against some Mid-West competition in Aurora, Carthage, and Concordia-Wisc.  Two of these three teams play in the NCAA post-season annually and we were able to win all three of them in front of an outstanding home crowd.
  We then began SAA Conference play and had a small hiccup against a tough Rhodes team which forced me to shave my long beard and start fresh, but we haven't looked back since.  Given the opportunity to play them again in the Championship, I know my guys would perform better.  
  This season has taken us to Austin, TX , Savannah, GA , Charlotte, NC for outside competition and have fared incredibly well.  We have certainly taken great strides in putting Berry College Lacrosse on the National map and are not satisfied.  It is a pleasure working with these guys and this is a very special team.
  Thanks for reading and keeping tabs on the Vikings and I hope that you will be able to come and see us still playing in the coming weeks of the Post-Season.  
  Talk again soon!  - Curtis Gilbert , Head Coach Berry College