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Half Hollow Hills celebrates their win at the 2025 Boys...

Half Hollow Hills celebrates their win at the 2025 Boys Lacrosse State Championships. Credit: Bridget M. Fetsko

Before the Half Hollow Hills boys lacrosse team won 23 consecutive games, its first state championship and finished as USA Lacrosse’s top public school in the country, coach Connor Hagans and the RedColts had to make their team philosophy of fast-paced lacrosse a reality.

Welcome to “Hagans’ Bootcamp” and assistant coach Paul Benway’s “School of Shooting.”

It’s a preseason routine, a conditioning plan that ramped up to the beginning of the season. Some exercises paired the athletes up, having one in a plank position until another finished the drill before swapping. It was designed to be grueling, but something players went through together to strengthen team bonds.

“Hagans Bootcamp became a staple, and the guys knew. They worked hard,” Hagans said. “The harder you work, the shorter it goes. It really started to train these guys to give max effort as long as I can for the guy next to me.”

Then came Benway’s shooting exercises.

“Even when you’re tired, you still got to shoot the right way,” Hagans said. “You can’t let your mechanics go.”

When you go on to win a state title — 15-10 over West Genesee — and score 420 goals across 23 games, frequently scoring quickly in bunches through Zach Marco, Anthony Raio and James Bruno after Nico Ghicas won a faceoff, it feels safe to say all the preparation paid off.

“We’ve worked so hard for it,” Jake Casamento said after the state championship. “Winter practices, fall practices, Hagans’ Bootcamp, it all came together as one.”

The conditioning showed in the big moments, like when Luke Bradley managed to muster the speed to beat his man and score the game-winner with 9.7 seconds left in the Long Island Class A championship game against Massapequa.

The players also dyed their hair blonde for the team’s playoff run and turned the same mantra onto Hagans as they asked him to do the same. The coach said he would if Hills won the Long Island championship.

“They were like, ‘Coach, you don’t have any hair up top. You got to dye the beard,’ ” Hagans said.

Sure enough, Bruno brought a hair dye box and handed it to Hagans shortly after the win.

“These guys were listening, they were figuring it out when I told them that when one of us does it, we all do it,” Hagans said. “And they were 100% right.”

Make no mistake: hair dye and winter sprints didn’t make Hills into a state champion. Two-way midfielders who can clear as well as they ride in Bradley and Ryan Chung, added to an offense that never scored fewer than 10 goals. Casamento and two punishing defensemen in Sal Caiazzo and Ben Vogt led a unit that played outstanding in the state championship.

Goalie Sal Santoro capped off an incredible high school career with a strong playoff finish.

But it’s the little things that not only made Hills a state champion but created bonds and memories that fueled these players to be the best RedColts they can be.

THE REDCOLTS' ROAD TO THE TITLE

Suffolk A Quarterfinal: Def. No. 8 Ward Melville, 19-5

Suffolk A Semifinal: Def. No. 5 Smithtown East, 20-9

Suffolk A Final: Def. No. 2 Northport, 18-9

Long Island A Final: Def. Massapequa, 15-14

Southeast Regional A Final/State A Quarterfinal: Def. Mamaroneck, 11-7

State A Semifinal: Def. Corning-Painted Post, 18-8

State A Final: Def. West Genesee, 15-10

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