Forgive the obviousness, but the Salem boys lacrosse team is a varsity sport, has been for four years now.

However, in building the program, head coach Chris Kelleher said the team has been hindered in the past by players who didn’t understand that.

There was an attitude, he said, carried over from the years when Salem was a non-sanctioned team, a “club mentality,”

Kelleher called it, one that has no place in a varsity program.

And the ’07 Blue Devils may finally be getting that.

Led by a 10-man senior class that helped it to its first state tournament appearance last spring, Salem enters this season with a buzz it never generated before. The Blue Devils have experience, supplemented by the youth of a promising freshman class. It has the team speed it lacked in prior years. Its defense, led by several upperclassmen, is as sound as ever.

Most importantly, it realizes the kind of commitment it’ll take to put it all together, Kelleher said. That, he hopes, is the first step among many the Blue Devils will take this season.

“Before, we had a club team, and that mentality was to go out there and do what they want to do and not play as a team,” said senior defenseman Jon Emerzian, who shares captainship duties with his brother, Pete, a midfielder. “Last year we had kids that when they got tired, they didn’t want to play, so they walked around on the field. This year, we have a lot more team play, and we cooperate more with each other. We have more of a mindset to be good than just having fun out there.”

Winning, of course, is fun, too, and Salem aims to do much more of that this season.

Besides the Emerzian twins, the Blue Devils return seniors Brendan Lyons, an attackman; Corey Miller, an attackman/ midfielder; and Sean Redmond, a midfielder, to help improve upon last year’s 5-9 record and first-round playoff exit.

Fellow seniors Nick Tomasi, Jordan Kusch, Dan Frasca, Neal Anderson and Devin Adams also provide the necessary experience to help lead the team’s younger players. Reaping the benefits of Windham’s growing youth program, Salem has brought in well-rounded freshman classes in each of the last two seasons, with this year’s crop ready to make an immediate impact.

Rookie Brett Miller, brother of Corey, starts up front as an attackman, while freshman goalie Joey Scire is “neck and neck,” Kelleher said, with sophomore Shaun Russell for the starting goalie spot.

Add it all up, and Salem has the potential to make this the best season in program history – varsity program history, that is.

“They’ve been kicked around a little, but they keep coming back, so I give them a lot of credit for that,” said Kelleher, whose team opens on Monday, April 9, against Hanover, the team which beat SHS in last year’s playoffs. “I think with that, they see the potential of this team, and they have high expectations themselves.”