Sunday, June 15, 2025
Tim Clancy spent a good chunk of the regular season trying to move the puzzle pieces around, looking for the perfect fit for the Baldwin boys’ lacrosse team.
He’s done just that, at the perfect time.
The Bruins enter the stretch drive 11-4 overall, 10-3 in Nassau Conference 3. They won three straight games before a 12-5 loss to Kennedy May 8.
“It was a pretty young team, and we’ve really come a long way from the beginning of the season up until now,” Clancy said. “At this point, I feel like we’ve kind of found our identity and moved some guys around and figured out who can do what for us. We’re in a nice little groove. We’re playing well right now and we’re in pretty good shape.”
Clancy said it was after a 7-5 loss to Clarke on April 10 that he realized the puzzle pieces needed to be shifted.
Senior Preston Kirchner, who has scored 47 of Baldwin’s 132 goals, was moved from attack to midfield to have a greater impact in all three phases of the field.
“He’s a scorer, but at the same time, he's good on defense, he's great on the faceoff wing,” Clancy said. “He’s the best ground ball guy on the team, and he's great in transition and pushing the ball. Having him in all three phases of the game, as opposed to just focusing on offense, really turned things completely around for us.”
Junior Mahlik Henry has also been solid, emerging as the faceoff specialist while also standing out as a defensive midfielder.
“He’s that classic utility player who you just kind of throw in there to say, hey, just go get the ball, get it up to the offense and do those in-between-the-lines things for us,” Clancy said.
The other moves were putting junior Elijah Iles, a starter on close defense, on the wing for faceoffs to help win ground balls and moving Garris Williams from midfield to attack.
Since that move, the junior has flourished. He has 12 goals and 11 assists. He scored twice in a 7-5 win over East Meadow on May 5.
“We knew that we had the athletes and the ability,” Clancy said. “We kind of just had to figure out where everybody was going to fall.”
In the cage, Dwight Lindsay has thrived in his first season as the starter. The senior, who was behind a two-year starter and just picked up a goalie stick on the junior varsity, has 139 saves on the season.
“He’s been a brick wall, he’s super athletic, and he’s been great on the clear,” Clancy said.
Clancy is unsure if the Bruins will be one of the 10 teams to make the Class B playoffs this spring. But a year after just missing the cut, it would be a great reward for the work his team put in this season.
“Their eyes are on the prize and just trying to win as many games as possible,” Clancy said. “And then the chips fall as they may.”
