The Pope John Lions boys’ lacrosse team is ready for the 2023 season with a promising season in sight.
With a big senior class ready to lead the Lions to victory, the Lions look forward to a HWS (Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex) Championship and even a state championship. The Lions have had multiple successful seasons in the past couple of years under Head Coach Chris Hoffmann.
Last season, the Lions went 10-9 while placing second in the HWS Tournament, losing to the Hunterdon Central Red Devils 10-3 in the final and making it to the quarter finals of the state tournament.
The seniors want to bring home a championship before their time is up at Pope John.
“With having a senior-heavy team who are all very talented, this could be the year that we could go all the way,” said senior Tony Cuccio. “Our biggest goal for the year is to go out and win the HWS Championship and win the non-public A group of the state tournament.”
With many of the seniors preparing to play in college, the team knows that they have to win and win now before it is too late.
Senior Lucas Biddiscombe and his fellow seniors want to end their high school careers with an overall good season while honing their skills for the next level.
“As a team, we have high expectations this season,” said Biddiscombe. “My fellow seniors and I want to end our careers by being a top team in the state, and I feel we can do this with the amount of depth and talent we have.”
The Lions will begin their regular season on April 3 when they host the Chatham Cougars at Pope John. With the expectations high for the season, the Lions know that they can’t take many days off this spring, but in the end, it would pay off to win a championship that everyone can remember.
Andrew Nowel, Contributing Sportswriter
Currently enrolled at Canisius University in Buffalo, New York, Andrew Nowel is an up-and-coming journalist/photographer and broadcaster. He wrote sports' articles for his high school, Pope John XXIII Regional High School. Andrew has worked with Morris Sussex Sports in sports broadcasting and analyzes professional sports in his free time. Andrew and his friend Ryan have a podcast that talks about professional sports and Canisius Athletics. Andrew also runs his own website about Canisius Athletics. He strives to inform the people about local sports and the young athletes of our communities from Buffalo to New Jersey and everywhere.
Andrew has provided previous and remarkable sports stories and photographs for the Ridge View Echo since he was 16 and enrolled at Pope John High School.
