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Bilodeau leads upstart Central to early successes

Friday, April, 25 By Peter A. Martin
Staff writer

After spending her first two years at Central Catholic trying to get a lacrosse team started, Meredith Bilodeau is spending her third season leading the Raiders on the field.

The junior is captain of the first-year Central Catholic lacrosse team, and through four games has scored a team-high 10 goals.

"The Bilodeaus were instrumental in getting a team," said Central coach Phil Rowley. "(Meredith) was very vocal about it with the school's administration."

Rowley, who coaches football and boys hockey at Billerica, began work on building the team last spring. He organized weekly skill clinics for the girls at the school with an eye towards tryouts a year in the future. Bilodeau was always there to help.

"When the school told me there was going to be a team I got very excited," said Bilodeau, an Andover resident. "I signed up as many people as I could to join the Raptors (club) team so that we could have some experience."

The Raptors are a travel team that Bilodeau and teammate Kelsey Richards were already playing for. But the club team was not the only place Meredith gained experience.

Her brother Dean, the first captain of Central's boys team when it debuted in 2005, has also lent a hand.

"It's very exciting to see her go through the same steps I went through," said Dean, now a junior at the University of Rhode Island and a member of the school's club lacrosse team. "What is more exciting is to see how quickly (the team is) progressing."

When the boys team was established, it played a season of strictly JV before played a varsity schedule in 2005. While that was considered for the girls, Rowley had other plans.

"You are going to lose games one way or the other," said Rowley. "At least as a varsity team you can learn faster and play better competition."

In addition, over 50 girls showed up for the tryouts. Not only did that allow for a varsity and JV teams, but the coaching staff had to cut girls to get to the right number.

"It was totally amazing to see how many girls showed up for tryouts," said Bilodeau, who hopes to attend and play for Trinity College. "Even more exciting than the numbers was how much talent there was."

In their first game, the Raiders lost heavily to Chelmsford, 11-2. But they responded from there, following the team motto, "Get better every day." Two days later, Central played Shawsheen Tech to a 6-6 tie.

Finally, the hard work paid off on April 14. The Raiders trailed Dracut 6-4 at the half, but a tremendous defensive performance | and four Bilodeau goals | gave Central the first win in program history, 11-7.

The Raiders followed that up with a 6-5 win over Haverhill and now sit at 2-1-1 in the Merrimack Valley Conference. With games today against Gloucester and Monday against Tewksbury, the girls have an opportunity to keep this surprising start rolling.

"It has been wonderful to see how quickly we came together as a team," said Bilodeau. "I didn't think we'd be doing this well. I really feel like my hard work has paid off. It is rewarding."