Making their mark

Huddled together on the bleachers with lacrosse sticks in hand, members of the Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club’s JV and varsity teams look to their coach for guidance. 

Coach Pete DeLisser begins drawing up the day’s lesson with green marker on a white board, which includes both offensive and defensive drills, reading the opposition’s attack and eluding a defender, among other lessons. 

Through the first half of the season, the players appear to have taken those lessons to heart. The Seahawks are a perfect 7-0 in the Florida Gulf Coast Lacrosse League with eight games remaining on the regular season schedule. 

“We are right in line with where I hoped we would be with a shot at getting better,”  says DeLisser, who has been coaching lacrosse for nearly 40 years, including five years as the Italian national team coach. “It’s all about trying to get better every day.” 

On March 21, the Seahawks edged past Houston Christian, one of the top lacrosse team’s in Texas, 12-11 to remain unbeaten. Chris Caruso and Jesse Clark each scored four goals. Clark Flessner, Ian Asselstine, Venizio Hickman and Andrew Brown also added goals. Goalkeeper Josh Cortman recorded 10 saves. 

“In years past, a couple of stars would shine, but this year we are a lot more unified,” says Asselstine, a senior at Pine View and one of the Seahawks’ captains. 

The Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club formed in 2010 after the Lakewood Ranch Lightning Lacrosse program, which began in 2004, split into two programs. At that point, DeLisser, who had been coaching at Lakewood Ranch since the club’s inception, chose to coach the Seahawks high school team. The team was originally named the Manasota Lacrosse Club before eventually changing to the Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club. 

The Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club is open to students who attend a Sarasota County high school that doesn’t offer lacrosse as a Florida High School Athletic Association-sanctioned sport. This year’s varsity squad includes players from Riverview High, Pine View School for the Gifted and Venice High, among others. 

“It’s been great getting to merge with other schools,” Asselstine says. “(I’ve gotten) to make a bunch of new friends, but I also get to play lacrosse with a lot of the same players who I’ve been playing with since I was a kid.” 

This season, the Seahawks formed a JV team for the first time. The addition of a JV team, comprised primarily of freshmen and sophomores, has added much needed depth to the program, which will graduate 14 seniors this spring. 

“The seniors have the (passion) to make this year be the year, but they can’t do it without significant contributions from the younger kids,” DeLisser says. “They’re really making a difference.

Next spring, the Seahawks will become an official FHSAA-sanctioned sport at Riverview, allowing the team to not only practice at the school but also hold its games under the lights at the Ram Bowl. The team currently plays at Twin Lakes Park. 

“For the kids, it’s just a different kind of spirit that comes with playing for your school,” DeLisser says. “Everyone knows each other, and there’s a cohesiveness there.” 

Rec league

In addition to its high school squads, the Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club also offers recreational lacrosse for boys ranging from U9 to U15 and girls ages 5 and up. The recreational teams practice twice a week at Twin Lakes Park with games played on Saturdays. The club offers year-round opportunities for players of all skill levels to learn about lacrosse and improve their fundamentals. 

“Lacrosse is a combination of a lot of the same attributes as other sports,” Seahawks Captain Ian Asselstine says. “You have to have an excellent sports IQ, but you also have to be a really physical athlete to be good at the game.” 

For more information on the Sarasota Seahawks Lacrosse Club, visit sarasotasurge.com.