By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/4/09

La Salle senior midfielder/face-off specialist Derek Bogorowski has signed a letter of intent to play next year at Lehigh University.

Bogorowski said he chose Lehigh for its strong academics and its coach, former Philadelphia Barrage player Kevin Cassese.

“Coach Cassese is one of the major reasons I picked the school,” Bogorowski said. “He is young and enthusiastic and he knows what he’s talking about.  I feel I can connect with coach Cassese.

“I like their style of play. Defensive-wise, they play similar to the way we play at La Salle. And offensively, they like to get the ball up field and push it in transition, and I think that’s one of my stronger points.”

Bogorowski, for now, will focus on a La Salle season that has much anticipation for Philadelphia lacrosse followers.

The Explorers went 31-2 last year and won the Catholic League, Eastern Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association and Keystone Cup championships. This year is the first that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is sponsoring boys’ lacrosse and La Salle is the clear-cut favorite to win it.

What’s more, the Explorers are ranked second in the nation in the Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse national rankings and will play many nationally-ranked teams from Maryland and New York as well as Philly’s Inter-Ac League.

Bogorowski said La Salle coach Bill Leahy is deflecting much of the hype surrounding the team.

“Coach Leahy is really good about blocking out the media and the hype,” he said. “He keeps us grounded. And at the same time, I think we monitor ourselves.

“It’s hard to ignore the hype at times. But you’d be hard-pressed to find another team that works as hard as we do. We worked hard in the off-season on our body and skills and we’re ready to put in the work in the spring.

“We’re looking forward to playing the schedule we have and showing just how food we can be.”

Tags: La Salle