Boys’ varsity lacrosse head coach Erik Cartelle won the Miami-Dade Coach of the Year award after a memorable season, with a record of 18-3, making it to the regional semi-final. 

When asked what the award meant to him, Cartelle said, “I see it more as recognition of what our guys did and the way our coaching staff grabbed my vision and helped execute it.”  

For Cartelle, building a team culture was important.

“Culture is the key word…When I got here two years ago, my focus was to build upon solid values. I’ve said it to the team many times that culture starts at home, the discipline aspect, and the commitment levels start at home,” Cartelle said.  

For Cartelle, building a culture should not only apply to the players but also the parents and their level of commitment.

“I thought that building a consensus with our parents was important in order for us to be successful; some coaches shy away from that aspect. I think it’s important that everyone involved — especially parents — are brought into what you’re building,” Cartelle said.

His plan brought about results: not only team aspect-wise — with a notable 85 percent win rate on the season — but also individually with six players from this year’s squad being named to the USA Lacrosse All-Region team. Cartelle believed the team’s and individual success came from the off-season work they participated in.

“All the hard work put in during the fall is a testament to how the players handled their injuries and took care of themselves during the weekend — with them sacrificing their Friday nights to rest for the next day’s game,” Cartelle said. 

Even with the recognized success this season, Cartelle is already focusing on the future. The team will lose 10 key senior players, seven of whom were starters. This will leave many positions and opportunities to be filled in the coming season. Junior attackmen Hoban Noyes and Sebastian Schnur will return with hopes of continuing the stellar offense displayed this past year. On the defensive side of the ball, five new starters — including the goalie position — are coming in next season.

“Next year, my work is cut out for me,” Cartelle said. “We had a lot of seniors graduate, especially on defense, I’m going to personally focus on developing the defense roster to make sure we don’t take a drop off on that side of the ball.”

Cartelle is not only working on the defensive side of things as he wants to make sure the lacrosse program is set for the long run by making it a focal point on in-house development, starting with the middle school program after bringing in new middle school boys’ varsity head coach Issac Newland to carry out his plan of building a culture early on. 

For the current remaining high school varsity roster, Cartelle looks to push them to be the best version of themselves.

“I believe our athletes from the class of ‘25 can do big things next season, especially if the players from ‘26 and ‘27 step up and assume bigger roles on the team.”