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You’ll have to excuse Shawn Smith if his entire sports focus these days isn’t centered on the official start of varsity lacrosse practice and tryouts on March 11.

You see, the John Jay (N.Y.) junior is a key member of the Indians’ ice hockey team that sports a 16-1-1 record and 10-0-1 mark in league play.

So Smith’s biggest goal right now is to help John Jay earn an appearance in the Feb. 24 Section 1 championship game at Brewster Ice Arena.

After the winter season ends, Smith will have a similar goal in lax. Last year, John Jay fell to Yorktown 9-8 in overtime.

A 6-foot-2, 180-pound midfielder, Smith has verbally committed to the University of Michigan.

But he’ll have two more varsity seasons of lacrosse in Cross River, before heading out to Ann Arbor, starting with 2013.

Now, here are Shawn’s perspective’s on the upcoming season.

What have you been doing to get ready for the season?
I play hockey in the winter, so most of my time lately has been dedicated to that. But for the rest of the players who aren’t involved in a winter sport, they hit the weight room and went to open-turf practices on Tuesday nights to avoid getting rusty for the spring.

We just started workouts before school three days a week and one or two optional practices after school to get in shape. We try to keep our sticks in our hands as often as possible so we can hit the ground running come spring time.

How does your schedule look, what games are you looking forward to most, and who are some of your scrimmages against?
As always, we have a very challenging schedule that will test us early on in the season.

Before we begin our season, we have several scrimmages against several tristate powers in Darien, Delbarton and Fairfield Prep.

Our first game is against Columbine High School from Colorado, which should be a great experience to play different competition than we are accustomed to.

And, of course, the Yorktown game at home (on March 30) is on everyone’s schedule.

Other games that I am looking forward to include Wilton, Ridgefield and Manhasset.

What player or players on your team do you think will surprise some people this season?
After graduating several impact players, we will need some younger guys to step up. I think sophomore attackman Ryan Lee is ready for a big season after seeing some time as a freshman.

I also think junior LSM Graham Bocklet will open many people’s eyes this season and become an important piece for our team. Overall, I think a lot of new names will be making an impact this year.

What do you think the strength of your team will be this year?
Last year, our defense and goaltending was primarily our strength.

We only graduated one defensemen, so it will be very helpful to have a plethora of returning players who have significant experience.

I also think our midfield has great potential since we’ve had a year together under our belts and already know the system.

How do you view the race in your league and who do you think some of the contending teams will be?
Class B is always a dogfight when it comes down to playoffs. As usual, I think contending teams will include Somers and Yorktown, which are always great teams to play against. I couldn’t be more excited for the season to come.

* LaxLessons.com story on Shawn’s commitment to Michigan

* For more info on Shawn, check out his player profile by clicking here

If you’re a player from the NY/NJ/CT tristate region and would like to share your perspectives on the 2012 season, send an email to info@laxlessons.com.

Player’s perspective archive

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Links to 2013 men’s and women’s collegiate and boys and girls high school schedules.

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