Three current Gloucester High boys' lacrosse players recently brought home gold medals from the Bay State Games, held in Boston at the turf athletic fields of Wentworth Institute of Technology from July 8-11.
The trio of Edan Lewis (senior midfielder) and brothers Sean (junior midfielder) and Geoff Kennedy (senior attackman) were part of the Northeast squad, which went 4-1 overall and held off Southeast 10-9 in the Gold Medal Game on July 11.
Geoff was one of four players for Northeast that scored two goals apiece in the championship game.
It's the second year in a row that Northeast has captured the Gold. Geoff has now played in the Bay State Games three years in a row while Lewis has competed the last two summers and this was Sean's first time. Lewis and Geoff were two of the best players on Drew Dominick's Fishermen team last spring that went 8-10 and just barely missed out on a state tournament berth. Sean was on the junior varsity squad.
Geoff noticed a lot of roster turnover between his three summers playing with and against some of the best lacrosse players in Massachusetts.
"My first year there was a lot of kids that had played before," said Geoff, who is also a standout in golf and hockey. "By my third year, there was only one or two kids from the year before on our team."
Northeast opened up the Bay State Games with a 15-7 win over Metro on July 8. Later that day, they beat Coastal 10-4 and Geoff notched his first two-goal game of the tournament. Southeast beat Northeast 12-7 on July 9 but Northeast bounced back by thrashing West 16-7 on July 10 to qualify for the Gold Medal Game and set up a rematch with Southeast on July 11, the final day of the Bay State Games.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the Bay State Games for the Gloucester athletes was meeting other players from familiar Northeastern Conference rival schools (Salem, Danvers) and some from all over Massachusetts (Wayland and Acton-Boxboro to name a few).
For Geoff, it's hard to pick a favorite sport between golf, hockey and lacrosse.
"It depends on the season," said Gloucester's leading scorer last spring in lacrosse. "When it's fall, I love golf. When it's winter, hockey is really fun. And in the spring, I'd rather play lacrosse."
Besides the Bay State Games, he's kept busy with his club team: the Fighting Clams, an elite lacrosse team. He also has been contacted about playing in a summer league in North Andover.
With a strong summer for the club team and in the Bay State Games and hopefully a memorable senior season, he's hoping to bring his lacrosse game to the next level: college.
Recently graduated Gloucester lacrosse player Jared Wright (a defender) is planning to play at Umass-Dartmouth so Kennedy is already getting the good word about the Division 3 school.
