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After a dominating victory over Conestoga (PA) last Friday – an 18-3 decision for Boys’ Latin (MD) that moved them to 9-0 – head coach Bob Shriver was kind enough to join us.

Coach Shriver hit on a variety of topics, including his team’s play against excellent out-of-conference competition, their preparation for the MIAA slate and the mindset of his senior class as they look toward playoff time. The Lakers won their first MIAA game yesterday over McDonogh (MD), 15-10 to move to 10-0 on the season.

Click the video on the right to see the full interview, and read more below for a full transcript.


On how the out-of-conference schedule will prepare them for the MIAA:

Well the teams we played this year – we played the best team in Florida, the best teams in [Washington] D.C., Indiana and Canada. We have played those teams before, [though] this is the first year we played the Hill Academy [Ont., Canada]. We had a stretch there where we went Gonzaga [D.C.], Hill and then Culver [IN], and the one comment we made to the guys was that it would be very similar to when we get into the MIAA, when we have to play Gilman, St. Paul’s, Loyola, Calvert Hall – hopefully that will help prepare us for that stretch. The MIAA is just a tremendous league. We don’t necessarily have the best teams in the country every year, but I think we have the most competitive league. It is really a grind.

On how his team’s preparation for their conference slate:

Very subtly, I think the kids will be excited. We used to play 13 league games. Last year was the first time we went down to nine, so the league did not even start until the second week in April – and it’s the same this year. So there is a lot of excitement about getting the league started. But it is kind of unusual – there is really only one month left in the season. That is kind of hard to come to grips with.

On the senior class and how they hope to have some success in the playoffs:

When they were sophomores, we lost an excruciatingly tough game to Gilman. We were winning by three goals with 1:20 left, and somehow we found a way to lose. Last year, we played the best team [Calvert Hall] right down to the wire and lost by a goal. So it was not like we were losing to bad teams. The kids who were sophomores two years ago were juniors last year – well, they are seniors now. The physical maturity, the emotional maturity, the lacrosse maturity – it looks like it is showing its head. Traditionally in our league, teams that have a lot of seniors typically do pretty well. That does not necessarily mean that we are going to do pretty well – but it does help having such a mature group.