Somewhere Jason Nash is smiling.

After his death last year, ISU Lacrosse came together and vowed to honor the memory of their fallen teammate. Riding that emotion, the ‘Birds fought until the very end, missing the playoffs by only one game.  

“Kind of after last year we took a whole different route of playing,” said senior attacker Mike Synek. “We played the way that he played. Our motto is play every shift like it’s your last because that’s what he always said.”

With the patches that continue to honor his memory stitched on their jerseys, the Redbirds opened the season this past Friday in an exhibition game against Division III Carthage College.

Remembering Nash’s words, the Redbirds gave everything they had to the Red Men in an 8-6 loss after trailing at the half 6-2.

“By the time halftime came around and we got those first game jitters out of the way, we settled down and our defense stepped up phenomenally,” senior attacker Tim Holden said. “We shut them out the whole entire third quarter and they only scored two goals in the fourth. We just dug ourselves a little bit of a hole.”

While the season is just getting underway, the players have either been playing or training since the end of last season.

“We pretty much tell everybody that they have to play summer ball, you have to work out on your own, you have to hit the weight room on your own, you have to work on your stick handling on your own,” Holden said.

“Even though we aren’t an NCAA sport, we compete in a very tough league. We have to be good. This isn’t high school level lacrosse, this is college lacrosse.”

There was no let down in preparation once school started.

In the fall, practices were held four times a week at Gregory Street Fields. Once the weather became colder, practices were moved inside to Game Time Gym in Bloomington on Sundays and Mondays.

The following three days of practice are set aside for conditioning and weight training at Horton Field House.

Perhaps making it easier to endure the long practices is the combination of missing the playoffs and the critics’ predictions of how they would finish the past couple of seasons.

Although they came just one game short of the playoffs last year, the Redbirds were picked to finish the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference in last place.

Against the odds, ISU Lacrosse has its sights set on GRLC Conference Championship.

In hopes of achieving those goals, the Redbirds will rely on a fairly young team. Seven freshmen join the already young Redbirds. This year’s team returns six sophomores that will look to continue to grow and improve off of their first season together last year.

One player to watch this season, according to team members, will be sophomore Kenny Phelan. The second year defenseman was the youngest player on the Redbirds last year and will be looking to come into his own before seniors Luke Haugen, Tim Holden, Dan Leipert, Mike Synek and Adam Weber graduate this year.  

“I think that everyone is kind of taking it as it was the right step,” Synek said. “This is probably going to be the most talented team that we have had since I have been here. I think everyone is just looking up from here.

The team’s next game will be at home against St. Louis University be Feb. 20 at 1p.m. at Hancock Stadium.