Penn State Men's Lacrosse charging up for its 2024 campaign
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- With spring on the horizon, Jeff Tambroni and his team will look to take the lacrosse world by storm in 2024, like they did a year ago.
A season charged by the return of key players and a hunger to prove doubters wrong ultimately had its plug pulled by a controversial call, leaving the team’s battery at 95% charged.
This season, Tambroni’s team is rejuvenated and led by veteran forces all over the lineup. However, before the team starts its regular season play on Feb. 3 against Colgate, they’ll learn more about themselves in preseason scrimmages against Bucknell and Army.
Tambroni and his staff have a “threefold” approach to the upcoming scrimmages, starting with staying healthy.
“Regardless of how many scrimmages or days you have (in preseason), you want to come out healthy,” Tambroni said.
The health of this team has been an overarching theme for the past few years. In 2022, key attackman TJ Malone got sidelined for the season with an injury, and even a year ago, the team had players like Chris Jordan and Jack Posey get injured throughout the long, grueling year.
After only losing two starters from a year ago, this team can go on another run if it can stay healthy, leading to Coach Tambroni stressing the importance of health in the preseason.
Health is salient for the coaching staff, and starting the year healthy will place the team’s base charge at 50% and ready to increase over the year.
The first increase in battery levels can come from the tests the team will face from Bucknell and Army.
“We’ve got to make sure that there are some uncomfortable situations that are just different than what they’ll see in practice every day when facing somebody else,” Tambroni said. “Having someone that does something a little bit different or challenges you in different ways, that’s going to help us become battle tested.”
A well-tested Penn State team can increase its battery charge from 50% to 65% if it can overcome the challenges it faces from the scrimmages.
The coaching staff has a vague idea of what it expects and what can lead to that 65% goal, leading to the third piece of the threefold plan.
“We want our guys to be in terrific form for at least 30 to 40 minutes against Bucknell, and then you’re going to build up through Army to 45 to 50, and then, Colgate, you get to that full 60,” Tambroni said. “We try to limit timeouts in scrimmages like this so that our guys have to work through tough situations that we wouldn’t ask them to work themselves through in games.”
Almost like a car shifting from first gear to fifth, the rpm’s have to increase for the vehicle to reach its top speed.
Time will tell if the Nittany Lions can start the year at a 65% charge and increase the total throughout the season to 100%.
Coach Tamrboni’s “threefold” plan will start the process for the team this season,
“At this point, you’re trying to get 1% better in these categories to become the very best in the country,” Tambroni said.
Hayden Lewis is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email lewis1818hayden@gmail.com.
Credits
- Author
- Hayden Lewis
- Photographer
- Alisha Yi