Oldham County Lacrosse is back for the 2024 season. The Colonels are looking to forge their way to a new legacy under head coach Scott Howe.
Howe is the winningest coach in Kentucky history for lacrosse with 326 career wins. He coached at St. X for 23 seasons, winning 16 state championships in his time with the Tigers. Now, Howe looks to help rebuild a Colonel program that didn’t finish their season last year due to a lack of players and a coach. He sees it as a challenge but looks forward to it.
“We had just a handful of kids actually signed up to play after the first week or two,” Howe said. “Now, we have about 20, but within that, 15 have never played the game before. We’re learning how to play lacrosse, and that’s a challenge in itself. Catching and throwing, it’s something that you really have to work at to get your arms around to be efficient and to be able to actually play the game.”
The challenge of building a team from the ground up lets Howe remember the start of lacrosse in Kentucky. He had 15 boys at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park and was teaching them how to catch and throw.
“Anybody that we played, it was 30-0 or 28-0, and it was probably our last game where we finally scored a goal, our first goal,” Howe said. “You’d thought we’d won the Super Bowl, but the next year it wasn’t 15 [kids], there were 35-40…It’s a fun challenge to go back to the beginning. These guys, they’re great guys. They’re all really good, they’re enthusiastic. They want to learn, but you have to have a lot of patience.”
Oldham County has started the season 0-2 but have put up five goals on the season. They are led by seniors Parker Gourley and Trey Schuler. Both seniors along with senior Billy Somers have experience playing lacrosse.
Gourley has been playing lacrosse since third grade and is looking forward to helping the team grow and seeing the growth throughout the season.
“I just enjoy getting out here with them and playing,” Gourley said. “We lost the past two games, but I had a blast playing, so everyone’s fun to play with. I love teaching people how to play. I might not be the best teacher, but that’s what we have Coach for. I like to keep everyone boosted. We’re a team for a reason. It’s not just one person.”
After last season, Gourley thought his lacrosse career was over. He realized how much he loved the sport with a year off.
“I thought I’d be officially done with it, looking back on it, because I started to grow up and get a job and stuff like that,” Gourley said. “Over that year of missing it, I missed it so much. I just love coming out here and at least being able to help with my last season and build a foundation of what’s going to be the next lacrosse team in Oldham County.”
Gourley wants to see the team get better at the fundamentals and come together as a team.
“The main thing I want to get better at, as a team, is obviously passing and catching and being able to run plays, but I don’t like how one person messes up, everyone starts blaming that one person,” Gourley said. “I’d like us to encourage him, because if we put one person down, they’re going to start messing up the rest of the game. I’d like to see us all work together and get a flowing station going.”
Schuler is just happy to have lacrosse again and is able to leave everything that he has out on the field.
“It just means a lot to me that it’s my final year, and I thought I wasn’t going to get to play, but I get to play the sport I love again, especially with such a great coach,” Schuler said. “He pushes us to the limit. He knows our potential.”
Schuler feels like his dodging has improved a lot throughout the offseason and into the start of this season, because Howe emphasizes it a lot.
“I’m not clumsy anymore. I’m tight with my movements and stuff like that,” Schuler said. “My dodge game has gotten so much better.”
In the first two games of the season, Howe is proud of his team for scoring goals and sees it as a positive with an inexperienced team.
“I think scoring some goals right away is a plus sign but getting guys to be where they are supposed to be and understand the game and see what happens,” Howe said. “Where’s the 2-on-1, or where’s the 2-on-2? How do you get an advantage? Catching and throwing, that’s our biggest hurdle right now. It’s stick work.”
Schuler has seen confidence grow with his teammates in the first two games.
“When we first came out here in our first practice, some of the boys were scared to shoot, scared to pass, scared to catch,” Schuler said. “They just looked scared with their helmets on and their sticks in their hands, but now, we have freshmen out here already scoring goals. They’re getting confident with their stick skills, their stick movement and the ball placement.”
Howe is expecting a big year out of the team’s freshman goalie, Evan Morgan. With a bunch of first-year players, Morgan has seen a lot of shots come at him, but Howe has seen him continuously improve each day.
“[Morgan’s] been making a lot of saves,” Howe said. “He’s seeing a lot of rubber.”
Gourley has liked the way Morgan’s stepped up into an important role on the team.
“[Morgan] really shows dedication,” Gourley said. “He’s just a leader on the defensive side. He gets frustrated, which I understand…I’m just really proud of him. He keeps his head up and does a good job.”
Schuler believes the defense can definitely be a strong point of the team. He’s also seen Morgan grow in his role, along with sophomores Sam Abbott and Luke Bryant.
“The defense just works together,” Schuler said. “They’re going to be a powerhouse. If they can just figure a little bit more stuff out, they’ll definitely be a powerhouse.”
The Colonels have a good amount of football players that have transitioned to lacrosse. Howe has seen them really learn and get a feel of the game.
“We have a couple of guys that will play some defensive midfielder, who are football guys, and never had a stick in their hand,” Howe said. “They’re able to scrub with somebody. They’re able to stay squared up on them and stay in contact with them. That’s good stuff.”
Howe and Gourley have seen sophomore Lonnie Douglas perform well during faceoffs in the first two games of the season.
“[March 19], there were, I think, 17 faceoffs, and he won 10 of them,” Howe said. “That’s a difficult position to start the game.”
Offensively, Gourley has seen Schuler and Somers get the flow of the offensive going throughout the first two games.
“When it comes to being able to pass and catch and shoot better, it’s Billy or Trey, because they’re the ones that really get the ball moving and score,” Gourley said.
Schuler views Gourley as the leader, because he’s played the longest out of everyone on the team.
“He’ll let us know what’s wrong and what’s right,” Schuler said. “Lacrosse is basically like the back of his hand for him. He has been a big leader. He’s been a big step up.”
Howe wants to see the younger players grow and develop throughout the season into the offseason.
“Are [the younger players] going to do something in the summertime,” Howe said. “What are you doing on your own? Coming out here a couple hours a day, three or four days a week, you’re not going to become an outstanding lacrosse player. Do you go home and bounce a ball off the wall for two hours?...It takes work. It takes a lot of work. It’s not easy, but it’s great. You get to run around in shorts and pads and hit each other with sticks. What could be more fun?”
Schuler is grateful to have Howe at Oldham County and believes his coach can turn the program into a competitive team.
“Within the next few years, I really think Coach Howe is going to turn this school into a powerhouse,” Schuler said. “People better watch out for Oldham County within the next few years.”
For the seniors, Howe wants them to remember that they were the beginning of Oldham County lacrosse, building a culture and foundation from the ground up. He hopes this will grow the team and grow the love of the sport in Oldham County and one day start a middle school lacrosse program.
Schuler is happy the team is back and just wants to have a good time in his final season at Oldham County.
“I definitely want to remember most about the senior year is how much the team had fun,” Schuler said. “I’m just glad to see everybody smiling after a game is over. That’s all it matters to me.”
Gourley wants to remember having a good time for his senior year.
“Obviously, we’re going to lose games, but I’d like to win a game just so the new guys can experience what a win is,” Gourley said. “I feel like that’d be a pretty good way to end my year.”