“We want to play an up-tempo and a fast, exciting brand of lacrosse,” Wojcik said. “I really believe in running the field and trying to play transition lacrosse. That’s what I’m trying to implement, and the guys have responded well to it thus far.”

Junior Jeff Cohen called the new system “exciting.”

“Everything we’ve done with him is very applicable to in-game playing,” senior co-captain Dean Gibbons added.

It’s his familiarity with upperclassmen like Cohen and Gibbons that Wojcik believes has made his transition to head coach easier.

“As an assistant here, I recruited the seniors and juniors,” he said. “I knew their personnel, their skill sets, I knew what their strengths were.”

His players, in return, have appreciated having a leader that understands them better than the average rookie coach would.

“Coach Wojcik is a great coach,” Gibbons said. “He knows the dynamic of the players, [and] he’s extremely intelligent.”

When the season kicks off tomorrow versus Canisius, the coach will lead those players out of the tunnel that he has run through so many times as an attackman and an assistant.

But now, Chris Wojcik has a team he can finally call his own, and he couldn’t be more grateful.

“It just makes it much more special to come back as head coach,” Wojcik said. “I feel really fortunate to come back. I’m going to make the most of it and give it my best.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.