ELHS Lacrosse Team Wraps up Winning Season
“Well done is greater than well said” is the mantra that guides the East Lansing High School (ELHS) boys lacrosse program and this year’s team epitomized that motto.
The team finished with 8 wins and 7 losses this season, reaching the regional semifinals of the state tournament and finishing third in the Capital Area Activities Conference.
Head coach William Wismer has been coaching lacrosse for 15 years, seven at ELHS. Throughout his career, Wismer has utilized the unorthodox strategy of building team culture through the book The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon.
“Each year, guys that are new to the team, we suggest that they read that book and then we use that book quite a bit for our team building,” Wismer said.
The book centers around former Cornell lacrosse player George Boiardi, who was killed during a game when he was hit in the chest by a shot, disrupting his heart rhythm. Gordon’s book chronicles Boiardi’s life and the characteristics that made him a great teammate.
“A lot of times you can get groups of players and maybe one or two guys are kind of the whole team or they take over and kind of do their own thing, and that’s really not what team sports are about,” Wismer said. “It’s doing everything as a group and as a unit and I think that philosophy kind of stemmed from this book and the former coach I played for.”

The team gets together once to twice a week to watch film and read a section of The Hard Hat together. They will then discuss what that section means to them as a team.
“It’s like you have to check your ego at the door, almost,” Max Luther, recently graduated attack, said when discussing the meaning of the team’s mantra. “When you’re on the field, you just have to do anything to win and stop complaining. Don’t complain about the refs, don’t do any of that, just let your actions and the scoreboard talk.”
Wismer reflects on the 2021 ELHS team that had lost its previous season to the Covid-19 pandemic. On a cold March day, the team gathered on a concrete slab in front of the middle school where they practiced to discuss the meaning of the word “team.”
“It almost seemed like time stopped for a minute,” Wismer said. “The guys weren’t really concerned with how cold it was out, they weren’t really concerned with anything other than talking about what it means to be a team and what it means to work together as a team.”
Wismer sees this moment as defining for the lacrosse team’s culture, leading them to break out of their huddles with the word “team” rather than “Trojans” or “East Lansing” as a reminder of what being a good teammate truly means.
Wismer implements individual and team goals to build team culture. One strategy is to pass out ‘Well Done’ stickers to players who achieve goals.
“Based on the previous game, we have what we call our ‘WD’ [well done] stickers, which is just a little blue sticker with a white ‘WD’ on it, and those are earned by our players for team goals and individual goals, and based on the different goals we hit in the game, players and the team earn those ‘WD’ stickers that they put on their helmets.”

Players take these words and traditions to heart, knowing the impact this mindset can have on them on and off the field.
“I think a lot of what coach teaches us can be applicable to real life,” Thomas Savage, recently graduated midfielder, said. “I think a lot of the things he teaches, like to be punctual, be on time, ‘well done is greater than well said,’ all of that stuff… apply to life.”
Over his 15 years of coaching lacrosse at different levels, Wismer said the 2023-2024 season is his most memorable.
“It comes down to how the guys reacted to adversity, how the guys reacted to tough losses, how the guys reacted to tough and gritty wins,” he said. “And I was just really impressed at their reactions. I thought that our guys handled themselves really well in adverse situations and it was a proud season for me.”
Some of the team’s most memorable games were winning a double-overtime thriller against Okemos and a one goal win over Midland Dow.
“That was like a picturesque lacrosse game,” Henry Mahler, junior midfielder said, referring to the win against Okemos. “Double OT, everyone was playing pretty well. That was a really fun game.”
Savage says they really “came out to play” when facing off Midland Dow.
“It was that final play, I think it was 13 to 12, and it really came down to our defense to stop them and win for us,” he said. “It was nerve racking, but winning that game felt great.”
The wins over Midland Dow and Okemos marked important milestones for the rising ELHS lacrosse program.

“This was the first time that East Lansing beat Okemos in almost two decades, which was a pretty big deal,” Wismer said. “It was also the first time that East Lansing finished third in the conference in almost two decades, so they did some pretty good things and the leadership definitely came from that senior group for sure.”
The team’s “small but mighty group” of seniors included six players, two of which had not played lacrosse before this season.
“They took the cultural ideals of the classes before them when they were young and really embodied those within the program,” Wismer said. “It was definitely one of those regardless of what’s going on on the field or regardless of the outcome, the wins and losses don’t define us. But more so ‘Are we moving in the right direction? Can we keep ourselves moving in the right direction?’ The process rather than the outcome.”
The seniors and leaders of the team focused on creating a welcoming environment for all players and helping each athlete grow.
“The goal was just making sure everybody has as good of a time as you did when you were their age and helping them through the process,” Luther said. “Just teaching them to help make them more efficient and better at all the drills, because it’s daunting when you have to go in there and just start. So I think it was just teaching people and making them feel comfortable within the team.”
During a season of ups and downs, the focus wasn’t always on wins and losses, but making sure the team was growing in a positive direction.
“The way I approach sports, in general, logically speaking, your first game of the schedule should be your worst and your last should be your best,” Mahler said. “So just focusing on one small, specific thing that you can change and you can focus on each game at a time and then just improving linearly like that, that’s just a goal I kind of set for myself.”
The coaching staff dove a little deeper than the surface level of scoreboards to help the team define success. They discussed three different tiers that would define the success of their season.
“The first tier is ‘Did the athletes and the program get better at lacrosse? Did their lacrosse skills improve?’” Wismer said. “The second tier we look at is ‘Did the culture of the program improve?’ And the third tier we look at is ‘Did the young men in the program become better people overall?’”
Wismer proudly declared that the team had accomplished its goals this season.