The North Oldham Mustangs have jumped out to a 5-2 start to the 2024 season in head coach John Catlett’s second year.
Catlett was an assistant at North Oldham before becoming the head coach. The biggest learning curve for him being the head coach is creating expectations and creating a positive culture.
“Year one, you have ideas of things you want to do and how you want to put your stamp on anything, and then I think after year one, you do some reflection and see what worked, what didn’t work and also the makeup of your team changes,” Catlett said. “I would just say trying to be adaptive is the biggest thing and being flexible as a coach. I think that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned going into this season.”
For his second year, Catlett will have 19 seniors on the team. He views it as a huge help to him, especially when it comes to drills and helping younger players out.
“It’s just big really, providing leadership and setting good examples,” Catlett said. “When you have more seniors, you have more people to help communicate your message that you’re trying to get across, and it helps that I’m very familiar with them all. They all know my expectations and how I work.”
One of those seniors, Rolli Herbert has seen the chemistry of the team improve over the offseason.
“It’s almost like we can just go out there and just play our game,” Herbert said. “Obviously, we start out with a game plan, but the flow of the game is kind of what wins it for us to be honest.”
Senior Davis Gray has seen the younger players step up in the early part of the year to help the team.
“We have a lot of speed on our team, and I think the younger guys, a couple of them, have helped out a lot with everything, being around us for them helps them be better,” Gray said.
Fellow senior David Niblett feels like the team as a whole has improved and gotten smarter since last season.
“A lot of the guys have been working in the offseason to improve,” Niblett said. “Our IQ in the game has helped us a lot this year. I think that’s really good for us.”
With the fast start to the year, it gives Gray a reminder of the growth of the senior class and North Oldham Lacrosse.
“[Gray, Niblett and Herbert] started sophomore year, I don’t know what our record was, but we didn’t win more than five games,” Gray said. “The improvements we’ve made, we’ve probably won more games this year than we won all of sophomore year. We all started sophomore year on the team and just the growth was made, I love it.”
Herbert feels the start has shown the potential of the team.
“A lot of us, we started, and we were kind of like the whole team starting off sophomore year numbers wise and developed into the junior year,” Herbert said. “Now senior year, I think it just shows how we’ve all grown together and improved a lot.”
Niblett enjoys getting the wins for the younger players, so they can experience what winning feels like.
“We lost a lot of games when we were underclassmen, so I think it’s good for motivation and inspiring them a little bit,” Niblett said.
Catlett preaches to his team to take things day-by-day and have a constant improvement mindset.
“We’ve had a decent start so far,” Catlett said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, but I think we’re in the right headspace at least to keep pushing forward. We know what we need to improve on. Now, it’s just on us to keep taking it day-by-day and keep improving. We’ve done some good, we’ve done some bad so far. Everyone’s engaged, which is good.”
Gray, senior Luke Wiggins and sophomore Lucas Tompkins have been really big for the Mustangs on the offensive side. Catlett is happy with how they’ve performed on offense.
“At least with Davis and Wiggins, I had conversations with them at the beginning of the year and put some expectations on their shoulders and tried to challenge them,” Catlett said. “So far, they’ve done a good job. There’s still a lot of areas for improvement. They can still reach another level. That’s my goal is to keep challenging them. Those three have, so far through the first couple games, helped us run the offense through them at least.”
Hebert has seen a lot of growth out of sophomore Evan Smith. Smith hit a game-winner in overtime on March 8 against Priory (MO).
“I would say [Smith] is playing a lot bigger role this year,” Herbert said. “For the midfielders, Luke Tompkins, he’s more of a two-way player. He helps our defense out a lot, and we can run the offense through him, which is good as well.”
Gray has also seen senior Gavin Clark step up this year in a big role.
“Gavin’s played a big role in our middies for offense, having a couple of really clutch goals throughout the start of the year,” Gray said.
Defensively, North Oldham has a rotation with its goalies, senior Luke Bucher and junior Rylan Lowery. Catlett has seen different abilities in both and hopes to maximize those strengths that they have.
“Goalie is a unique position in that there’s only one guy out there, and you can’t sub it,” Catlett said. “How you kind of manage that is a little different, but I would say so far, Luke Bucher and Rylan Lowery have both fared pretty well for us to start the season. They’ve been splitting time.”
Niblett is one of the anchors on defense for Catlett. He’s seen Niblett make a big jump this year in leadership on the field.
“He’s made a big jump, being much more of a vocal leader and helping, especially, the younger guys and teaching them different defensive stuff,” Catlett said. “Even just pulling other guys aside, I think David has made a big jump just in his leadership abilities and maturity there.”
Niblett and Herbert have seen guys like freshman Carter Reich and juniors Price Duke and Maddox Detwiler step up on the defensive side to start the year.
“I feel like everybody’s just trying to become more intelligent in the game, so it’s more fun,” Niblett said.
Herbert has seen a lot of growth each year from Lowery.
“Rylan, specifically, has made a huge jump from his freshman to sophomore year to now,” Herbert said. “I think he’s developed a lot, and he’s become a very good goalie and same with [Bucher] as well.
Niblett has also seen good work from the goalies as well.
“Rylan’s been putting in a lot of work, which I like to see,” Niblett said. “I’m excited to see how he’ll be in his junior year. Payton [Smith] also is looking pretty good for a freshman coming in. This is like a little bit newer for him. I think he’s looking really good.”
For his seniors, Catlett wants them to enjoy their senior year and have fun. He wants them to feel like they’ve grown and progressed.
“I think the main message for them is to just continue to work,” Catlett said. “If they keep doing that and they keep on the trajectory they’re on, when they look back at the end of the season, they’ll be hopefully surprised at how far they’ve come. I think they’ll be proud of their accomplishment to say, ‘hey, this is what we did in four years, and we had a really good time doing it.’ ”
Niblett wants to have this year be the best the school has seen.
“I think it’d be really nice for us this season if we could just have our best year as a high school program,” Niblett said. “I know a lot of us have put a lot of hours into this game. It’s really nice to see it finally paying off with the score.”
Gray wants to finish his final high school season with his teammates by ending on a positive note.
“It’s just finishing out with our brothers,” Gray said. “All these guys, we’ve played together since middle school, and ending on a good note, really, that’s all I want.”
Most of the Mustangs have been playing together since middle school, and Herbert wants to remember his teammates as family.
“We haven’t really lost anybody, we’ve only really gained people,” Herbert said. “I think that’s one of the biggest things, and the next thing that we’re kind of looking forward to is seeing how well we can perform this season, because we know we have the potential. It’s just a matter of if we can wrap it up in a good note.”