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5/25/2009- Lacrosse
Normand leads Eaglets resurrection
By SEAN SHAPIRO
Special To The Oakland Press
ORCHARD LAKE — To say the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s lacrosse team is undergoing a transformation would be an understatement.
Rising to the No. 1 seed in this year’s Division 2 state tournament with a 15-4 record after going a combined 5-26 in 2006 and 2007, resurrection would be the more appropriate adjective.
The architect behind this resurrection has been head coach Greg Normand, who took over the program in 2008 after 10 years of coaching the Waterford United team.
After his son Taylor graduated from Waterford Mott in 2007, Normand planned to retire from coaching.
However, after getting a call from St. Mary’s, Normand decided to visit the school.
“What really impressed me was that everyone of the young men came up and shook my hand, looked me in the eye and said, ‘Coach we want you to be here,’ ” Normand said.
While the players impressed Normand on his initial visit, as far as the rest of lacrosse world was concerned, they were doormats who had won a combined five games in their prior two seasons.
It seemed the Eaglets were stuck on the same path in Normand’s first season as they started off 1-7, but from that point the team finished the season on a 9-2 run to finish at 10-9, above .500 for the first time since 2005.
Using their second-half success as momentum, St. Mary’s went into the summer and performed well at both the Notre Dame and Ohio State team camps, winning the team competition at the latter over traditional Oakland County power Troy Athens.
This season the Eaglets started the season with a 13-1 thrashing of Clarkston, the first of 14 games they would score double-digit goals in this season.
But the best testament to St. Mary’s revival was witnessed the weekend of April 25-26. The Eaglets beat then No. 2-ranked Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern, 11-4, the next day they went head-to-head with the 2008 national champions, Birmingham Brother Rice.
St. Mary’s battled the whole game, even holding an 8-6 lead early in the third quarter.
However, Brother Rice would hold onto a 12-11 victory after the Eaglets hit the cross bar with eight seconds remaining.
Despite the loss, the game proved the Eaglets were back as top team in the state, considering Brother Rice hasn’t lost an in-state game in six years.
“We had nothing to lose, we played relaxed and when we realized they weren’t all they were cracked up to be, we just had fun and played tough,” junior midfielder Drake Chwalibog said.
That relaxed mentality is something that Normand has instituted since his first day with the Eaglets, and it’s something the players have enjoyed just as much as the wins.
“He (coach Normand) brought in a relaxed atmosphere,” said Ian Brambs, who is the Eaglets leading scorer. “As guys got more relaxed they started to have more fun.”
With 102 points this season, Brambs, along with, Chwalibog and Taylor Docking lead a scoring cast, which features eight players with at least 20 points.
The Eaglets defense has limited opponents to 6.33 goals a game and is anchored by Nick Gondek and PJ Walters.
Like business as usual, the offense and the defense showed up in full force for the Eaglets in their first round playoff game against Grosse Pointe South on May 21, as eight different players scored in a 13-5 win.
St. Mary’s will now meet Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in the regional semifinal on Wednesday.
Despite a 12-6 win over Notre Dame Prep earlier this season, the Eaglets won’t be taking their next opponent lightly.
“We keep telling them we haven’t done much yet, we still haven’t won a regional,” Normand said. “Until we’ve done that, we have to just shut up and play.”
If that happens, it’ll be another step in the resurrection.
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