LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates men's lacrosse team is building an identity and culture under second-year head coach Dan Annino, and the Bobcats look see their efforts translate to the field this season, as Bates begins the 2024 campaign Wednesday evening with a home game against Emerson under the lights at 6pm on Garcelon Field. 

"We just want to put 60 minutes of Bates lacrosse together every game," Annino said. "We saw it in flashes a year ago, but coming into this year we want to find consistency in that intensity, if we do that on the field each and every game starting with Emerson, we're going to be pretty happy with the result at the end of the year." 

The Bobcats are very young, but they do return their two-leading point-scorers from a year ago, with senior Wil Masterson (York, Maine) once again expected to score a lot for the Bobcats, having tallied a team-leading 39 points (23 goals, 16 assists) last season. Meanwhile, senior captain Jake Johnson (Lake Forest Park, Wash.) tallied 10 goals and 11 assists, second on the team in both categories. 

Johnson is joined as a team captain by junior Denzel Evans (Baltimore, Md.) and senior Jack Daoust (Westport, Mass.) this year. 

"Those guys are the first in, last out, but they are also empowering their teammates in a really significant way and creating more leaders on our team has been a big focus for us," Annino said. "Those guys have embodied that and I think they've created more leaders out of their teammates this year than we've seen, which is pretty special." 

Defensively, the Bobcats are led by juniors Ben Miller (Scarsdale, N.Y.) and Colton Curtis (Charlotte, N.C.). Curtis led the team with 16 caused turnovers a year ago and recorded 31 ground balls, while Miller notched 24 ground balls as a sophomore.

"We've got a good mix," Annino said. "We're going to have some young guys that are going to make an impact, but we also got some veteran leadership out there to help lead the way."

At the goalkeeper spot, the Bobcats have a trio of players competing for playing time. Senior Spencer Wood (Los Altos Hills, Calif.), sophomore Drew Nyhus (Lake Oswego, Ore.), and first-year Andrew Toland (Hingham, Mass.) have all impressed in practice. 

"All three of those guys have put together stretches where they've looked unbeatable and they're definitely making our shooters better right now, which is a ton of fun," Annino said. "Maybe not for those shooters, they're getting a little frustrated because those guys are tough to beat, but that competition has been really, really good so far."

Speaking of competition, fans can expect to see the big first-year class of 16 Bobcats get their feet wet this season, and Annino is looking forward to seeing them contribute.

"I think we're going to surprise some folks and hopefully even surprise ourselves a little bit," Annino said. "In our locker room, we know what this team can be and we're excited for everybody to see it."