Guerrette trying to help Campbell boys lacrosse reach a new level

Ryan Guerrette knew what the goal was for the Campbell High School boys lacrosse team this season, even if no one outside the program thought the Cougars could do it.

After losing almost a dozen seniors, including five of the top six players on offense, from last year’s team that went undefeated in the regular season before losing in the Division III semifinals, Guerrette knew a lot of people would think this was a rebuilding year for Campbell.

The senior goalie felt otherwise.

“For us, the narrative isn’t going to fit with people looking from the outside right now, we are championship or bust,” Guerrette said. “This is a championship team. We believe we want it, especially those guys who lived through two horrific playoff losses. They want it bad.”

The No. 2 Cougars (15-2) will try to take the final step at 5 p.m. Sunday, when they take on No. 5 Hopkinton (12-5) in the D3 championship game at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

For Campbell, it’s looked a lot different this season. While the personnel losses on offense were big, the defense came back mostly intact. Guerrette has been a three-year starter in goal, joined by senior Jackson Kanaley, who moved from LSM to defense this season, and senior Dom Silvia, who was a part of the Cougars’ championship team in football and picking up lacrosse for the first time.

Those three, along with sophomores Nick and Scott Hershberger, Campbell has been able to shut down quite a few opponents this year with its physical, imposing presence, having held every team to single digits in goals this season.

But it starts with Guerrette for the Cougars.

“You know what he’s doing because we’ve been in conversations for three years now about what we want to do,” Campbell coach Josh Knight said. “It’s nice because he almost acts as an assistant coach. It’s almost like having a defensive assistant coach. We lost so much on offense, the last two years I’ve been giving a lot of my time to the defense and concentrating on building that up. Now this year, I’m working with the offense a lot.”

Having that added responsibility this season was fine with Guerrette.

“The coaches are leaning toward the offense because we need to help them adjust to the next level,” he said. “Meanwhile, we have a lot of the same core defensive players, just a couple of new guys. So while the coaches are focusing on them (on offense), I try my best to almost be a coach for the defense. When they need to work on the offense, when the defense makes mistakes, I need to be the one to fix them.

“It’s really easy for me because they trust me and they value me. That makes it easy on my part. Being that senior leader for them in a way of just, not necessarily teaching them how to play, but teaching them how to raise up to the next level.”

It’s the leadership Knight thought he could get out of Guerrette when they finally took the field together in 2021. Both were ready to make their debut for Campbell the season before – Knight was hired as the athletic director before the start of the school year and was going to coach boys lacrosse – but COVID-19 cancelled the season.

“Any goalie who comes in, the first day when I met Ryan a couple of years ago, I told him you are the captain of the defense,” the coach said. “You’re seeing what’s going on and it’s you on the line, taking the shots. It’s up to you and how you’re conducting, how you want people to slide.

“We play a very matchup-based defense, but you’re conducting the six other guys in front of you as a group, as a team. He’s really taken that role the last couple of years and it’s blossomed.”

Now with one game left, Guerrette and his teammates are focused on doing whatever it takes to avoid the feeling they felt at the end of last season.

“They don’t want it to happen again,” he said of his teammates. “They know it’s not going to come as easy, but they’re working for it because they don’t want to experience that pain again. That’s easy as a senior captain. This team has people who want it badly and are fighting every day.”