Remembering An Expectation-Setting 2021 East Lansing Boys Lacrosse Season

By pretty much any measure, the East Lansing boys lacrosse team had a breakout 2021 season.

From staying competitive against the top tier of their league, to reaching a regional final, to a bevy of individuals earning postseason honors, the Trojans excelled. And despite ending with a loss in the regional championship game to the defending state champions, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, this past season was a benchmark-setting campaign for East Lansing.

“Obviously the outcome wasn’t what we wanted it to be,” said East Lansing Head Coach Will Wismer. “You always want to win your final game of the season, you know. But to have the opportunity to play against the defending state champions and to see what that level of lacrosse is like, especially for our team, because we’re still a relatively young team right now — that was just great for our guys.”

A year after missing out on their 2020 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a team Wismer described as being “young” when they last played together in 2019 went to a regional final for the first time in more than a decade. The Trojans topped some of the best teams in the Capital Area Activities Conferences (CAAC) and came close to beating some of the others, which was not always a familiar position for the East Lansing boys lacrosse team. The strong regular season bled into a strong postseason run, featuring two wins in the regional competition before East Lansing lost to defending state champions.

“So there were definitely some question marks coming into the season,” Wismer said. “But I think we were kind of banking on having a bunch of youth in 2019 and that kind of propelling us throughout, 2021. We were looking forward to it. And honestly, just looking forward to the opportunity to get back on the field in general.”

When the Trojans last played together in 2019, the roster featured a lot of underclassmen. It wasn’t a particularly remarkable season, but the foundation was laid for year-to-year growth from the predominantly young roster. Then they lost the 2020 season — as all spring athletes in Michigan did due to Covid closures and restrictions.

In the intervening 18 months, it was up to players to get out and get a stick in their hands to practice and develop their individual skills. Assuredly, players squeezed in some time shooting on a net or playing wall ball — passing the ball to themselves over and over by bouncing it off a wall — but Wismer wasn’t sure what to expect when the team could finally reconvene this spring.

There was one inevitable change among the players during that year and a half, though.

“We definitely saw some maturity, some physical maturity, no doubt,” Wismer said.

As it turned out, Wismer had little to worry about — slightly more grown and, despite the year off, much improved — the Trojans enjoyed a 2021 season as successful as any in recent memory. As such, a bevy of Trojans earned all-conference and all-state honors.

Headlining that list for East Lansing are senior faceoff specialist Nicholas Lane (second team all-state) and junior attack Marcus Haynie (honorable mention all-state). Both Lane and Haynie also made the All-CAAC first team, and Lane was an honorary captain.

Joining those two on the all-conference team are senior attack Owen Petersmark (first team), senior long-stick midfielder Tommy Bertsch (honorable mention), junior attack Jackson Early (honorable mention), and sophomore midfielder Austin Garrett (honorable mention).

This talented team, featuring a slew of juniors and seniors now, picked up some notable wins during the regular season.

The Trojans topped DeWitt — a CAAC rival and a team that Wismer said East Lansing was specifically hoping to beat — getting the Panthers back for a loss they handed the Trojans a few years back. They topped Lansing Catholic and Holt, too.

Postseason play also offered a chance for the Trojans to serve up some revenge. After dispatching Pinckney in their first regional game, the Trojans faced off with Dexter in the regional semifinals. In the 2019 regional, Dexter ousted the Trojans in the first round in a lopsided 13-2 game.

But this time around, the Trojans had the upper hand with their upperclassmen. East Lansing secured a trip to the regional title game by beating the Dexter Dreadnaughts, 12-7.

Though the season ended shortly after, once the Trojans fell to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, just getting to the regional title game and getting to play against a state-champion caliber team was valuable, Wismer said.

Prior to this season, most of the team had only played one postseason game — the loss to Dexter in 2019 — and didn’t get to add on that experience last year. Now, they’ve played three more playoff games, including two wins, and have seen the level of play it takes to win a regional and compete for a state title.

By Wismer’s estimation, the Trojans last reached the regional final in 2007 before doing it this year. He hopes it will not be more than a decade before they reach it again, with the run this year setting an example for the program moving forward.

And though the seniors who starred this year will have finally graduated and left ELHS next season, there are still juniors coming back and other young players set to develop and fill bigger roles to help meet the benchmark set by the 2021 team.

“I think that’s what’s so cool about high school athletics too is that you got a bunch of guys who kind of get that taste of the championship feel with the regional finals,” Wismer said, “And they get a taste of that and I think our hope as a coaching staff is that that’s just fuel for our guys.”