The final horn at St. Thomas’ Granger Stadium seemed to come too soon, just like the end of the season for the 2024 men’s lacrosse team.

After a historic 13-5 2023 season that included a trip to the Texas High School Lacrosse League Class C semi-finals, the men’s lacrosse fell short in the opening round of the 2024 district playoffs, closing out the season with a 7-6 record after a narrow 5-4 loss against St. Thomas High School.

“We were a first-round exit,” senior goalie and president Hayden Hessel said. “I don’t think that was unexpected. We had a lackluster offense and a really good defense, so it was a very gritty season.”

Bellaire scored at least 10 points in only one game during the 2024 season, a 10-9 win over Lamar. The team averaged just 5.6 goals per game, a drop back from two years ago in which they averaged 13.2 goals a game.

“Just little things, I think, is where we messed up,” Hessel said. “There were no blowouts the whole year. Every game we fought tooth and nail till the clock ran [out].”

Players started preparing early in the offseason for the 2025 season.

“We’ve been hitting some workouts, you know, lifting weights,” senior defenseman Dylan Schlegal said. “That’s all we can do, aside from playing lacrosse.”

Aside from offseason strength training at EōS or the YMCA, players focus on developing their game sense, stick skills and their ability to pass, catch and shoot with their lacrosse sticks. Through the regular season, this is accomplished through team practice, but during the summer, more club lacrosse teams start up, providing an outlet to focus on lacrosse when school teams are inactive.

“A lot of our team plays for the Houston Cougars over the summer,” senior attackman Leo Dale said. “The summer travel team was a way to get extra reps and just practice.”

With three practices per week and travel tournaments like the Big Easy Classic in Louisiana or the Texas Two-Step in Plano, Cougars — founded by Bellaire coach Nick Ignatiev — allows Houston players to focus on lacrosse during the offseason. However, the team also experienced key personnel changes during this period.

“We lost Coach Keith,” Hessel said. “He was with us for a lot of years and was a varsity defensive coach. He moved away to Dallas.”

On top of the coaching change, the team had to find new players to replace the seniors who graduated last year like midfielder Bennet Sacks and defenseman Sam Lack.

“Bennet was a good role player,” Schlegal said. “If you needed him to get a ground ball or lay a body [out] he could do that. Sam was good moral support. It was always good to have him at practice.”

Despite the losses, Hessel is optimistic about the team and some of its new personnel this year.

“Player-wise, we did gain more guys on our attack line and our middy line, just our offense overall,” Hessel said. “It’s a good look for us, given the season last year having a weaker offense, and we have the exact same guys back on defense, and a pretty similar middy line, just added some more guys, so it’s looking good.”

As the three seniors prepare for their final season with Bellaire, they have a few goals in mind:

“Win state,” Schlegel said.

“I’m just hoping I can play every game and just score some goals,” Dale said.

“Being in your senior year, this is the last year that a lot of us are gonna play, obviously the goal is to win state,” Hessel said. “As seniors, this is our last opportunity to take it home.”

Though this may be Dale and Schlegal’s last season playing lacrosse, Hessel still hopes to pursue lacrosse at the collegiate level.

“I wanted to [play] for a long time, but with lacrosse and most things in life you have to balance sports and academics, and I’m still in the process of deciding if that’s what I want to do,” Hessel said. “I think I’m gonna go the MCLA route, play for a Division I MCLA team, and hopefully win a title there for MCLA.”

Men’s lacrosse will look to open the 2025 season strong with an away game against The Emery/Weiner School on Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at The Emery/Weiner School, subject to change. The men’s lacrosse schedule can be found on the THSLL website.