The JSC lacrosse season is here with new faces and a new coach, Steven Foote, who coached last year at the College of Southern Maryland. His primary goal is to improve last year’s team, which lost every game.

“It’s great here,” he said. “I like the small campus atmosphere. I like the student-athletes that we have. I think that we are growing into a program that can be successful. Me being here is kind of a change of pace from what [the lacrosse program] has seen in the past. I have a lot of enthusiasm and excitement that I like to bring to the school and the sport. It’s becoming infectious and we are growing as a team week after week.”

Director of Athletics Jamey Ventura notes that Foote has a great amount of experience coaching lacrosse and is happy that he chose to come to Johnson.

“We are pretty excited about his knowledge in lacrosse and his experiences that he can bring here,” Ventura said. “He has recruiting experience, which is something that we have lacked in the past, and that is something that we need to build that program back up.”

One of the problems that Ventura acknowledges in the lacrosse program is the inconsistency of the team due to the college’s difficulty retaining coaches, which in turn has made recruitment problematic. With Foote at the helm of the program, Ventura hopes to attract more students to the college.

For Foote, for the moment at least, it’s one day at a time.

“I am looking at it day by day,” he said. “Our numbers have been fluctuating game to game and they will season to season. Lacrosse is a game where you have to take it one possession at a time. When we have practice where we don’t have the numbers, we still have to practice and take it one day at a time to make sure everyone is getting better and work towards everyone being at the same page.”

Foote acknowledges that one of the biggest challenges with this year’s team is the lack of experience. Many players on the team have never played lacrosse or haven’t played for long, but he doesn’t see it as much of a challenge as long as the team’s mindset is in the right place.

“I definitely want to just get everybody up to speed in the game of lacrosse,” he said. “Experience doesn’t really have much to do with it. It’s more having to do with heart, determination and buying into the system. I think, as athletes, we can be successful. If we take the talent that we have and we compete every week, I think we can be successful against other teams in our conference.”

One of the more experienced players on the team is freshman Kyle Picard. He welcomes the challenge of playing with inexperienced players because the payoff is so rewarding.

“It’s tough but fun at the same time,” he said. “It’s tough because not everyone is at the same level as everyone else, but at the same time, you get to watch the least experienced players grow into better players.”

At the end of the day for Foote, he just wants to give players the opportunity to play lacrosse.

“Lacrosse is a game that you can play forever and pass down to future generations, and I don’t want to take that opportunity away from somebody who wants to be out there for that opportunity,” he said. “I want kids who are there every day, working hard and getting better. I want those players to be able to pass that game down on to others.”