Riverhead lacrosse coach Vic Guadagnino knew it could happen. After two seasons of dominance, a verbal commitment to the University of Maryland and an assemblage of awards including Division I rookie of the year his freshman season, Guadagnino assigned a person all year long to just record Blake Carrara’s stats to make sure he would have the numbers to back him when he took the podium. Because it was obvious: long stick middie Blake Carrara is among the best in the nation.
In the League II end-of-the-year coaches meeting to talk awards, Guadagnino put Carrara, a junior, up for Most Outstanding Defenseman in League II.
Mind you, some of the best teams in the nation play in this league. There was bound to be stiff competition.
“Nobody else opposed it,” Guadagnino said. “He won unanimously without even a vote.”
Smithtown East’s head coach, Jason Lambert, said Carrara is head and shoulders above anyone else in the league. Smithtown West’s coach, Bob Moltisanti Jr., followed up by saying that not only was Carrara the best in the league, he was the best of the class.
“So obviously I was going to take this up,” Guadagnino said.
This, meaning the case to be an All-American.
“I have been coaching for 21 years now, ” Guadagnino said. “I’ve only stood up three other times. Those three kids I mentioned ended up being All-American at William Floyd.
“I don’t just get up here on whim for a kid that’s not getting it done,” he told them.
187 takeaways.
“One hundred eighty-seven times he’s taken away possession from the opponent this season,” Guadagnino said. “He had over 200 ground balls.”
Absurd.
Suffolk County is limited to nine All-Americans and five All-American honorable mentions. Fourteen players got the nation-wide honor at the Suffolk County Lacrosse Coaches Association Awards Dinner on Wednedsay. Carrara was one of them.
He was selected as an All-American honorable mention – a first for Riverhead history. He was one of only two juniors in a senior-laden group.
“This year I was kind of hoping for it, but two years ago I would have never thought it would come to any of this,” Carrara said. “I didn’t even start in seventh grade.”
He first decided to pick up the long pole before his freshman season at a camp in Syracuse because there wasn’t enough defenseman.
“I figured I might as well try it,” Carrara said. “I played regular midfield before that.”
“I guess I wasn’t that good,” he joked.
Now that long pole is his life.
“It’s like my third arm,” Carrara said. “I’m always playing lacrosse.”
He regularly defends the best attackmen in the nation and it’s something he’s grown to love.
“I love playing the best player on the field and beating him,” Carrara said. “There’s nothing better than that.”
Carrara will now try to make it on U19 USA lacrosse team. He’s already among the 108 players invited to the first tryout. It will be cut down to 50 players at Stevenson University at the end of the month and that number will continue to shrink after a series of tryouts. The final roster will stand at 23.
“I’m never really nervous for tryouts because I know I’m always prepared for it,” Carrara said. “After school ends I’ll be training every day this month for it.”
The scariest part of all of this is that he’s only a junior.
“Lacrosse is my life,” Carrara said. “I’m either lifting, playing wall ball or playing some kind of lacrosse. My life has changed because of lacrosse. It’s decided what college I’m going to. It’s pretty much decided my high school career. It’s pretty much everything to me.”
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