2018 End of Summer / Start of Fall

  Coach Olsen and myself just finished a long summer tour of the US in search of the best student-athletes we can find.  I know personally I ate brisket, lobster rolls, crab cakes, White Castle, Five Guys, In 'n Out, and What-a-Burger this summer, and coach Olsen looks to have done the same.

  We feel good about the 10 incoming players we have this year.  For whatever reason, despite our best efforts it turned out to be a small class, but talented.  We had one of our better players decomit and get poached by Univ. of Hartford in June before they closed their class, so while that stings at least we know we are going after the right guys.

  If you are one of the ones to be reading this, bottom line, we need you.  We saw you showcasing what you can do, and we found you and like it and here you are reading a blog....

  Berry is a very special place and I look forward to leading this class of Seniors into the most competitive season Berry College has ever faced.  I cannot think of another class of Viking warriors more prepared for battle than these hard-nosed gritty grinders.  We put this class through the wringer when they were freshmen to prepare them for this year, and I will do the same for next years class.

"My job is to help you become the man you would like to become."

Follow us, believe in us, JOIN US.

Talk soon.

-CG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW4oWVjkxlY&t=11s

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