The 100 Hill Challenge

For several years the hill located in Longview Park, north of the boathouse on Marist's campus, has been a familiar site for the Marist Lacrosse team. Since arriving three years ago, Strength and Conditioning coach Jon Clancy has used the hill as a training tool for the many teams he works with. This fall the training program he prepared for the lacrosse team involved each player doing 100 "hills" over the course of the fall. A "hill" can be simply running up and down the hill, which is no easy task, but in previous years there have also been variations that have included doing it with a teammate on your back.

Once a week this fall the team would jog from the weight room to the hill and back, about one mile each way, and would do as many times up and down the hill as they could in 8 minutes. Coaches would keep a running tally of how many each player had completed over the course of the fall. This year running hills took on a deeper meaning for the team, as they completed 34 hills, one-third of the entire semesters workload, their first time visiting the hill in honor of their fallen teammate Eddie Coombs, who wore number 34 last season for Marist. That first session set the tone for the rest of the semester and designated the hill as a spot where the team would come together and work hard as a unit rather than individuals.

This week marked the completion of the 100 hill challenge for everyone on the team. Even though the hill in Longview Park was the source of a great deal of physical pain and anguish, and is sometimes used as punishment, the players left with a good feeling knowing that they had conquered the hill 100 times. Senior Evan Guarini said "Running up and down this hill isn't increasing our skill as lacrosse players, its more about going down there and beating in the ground as a team and getting through it together."