Lisa Larrabee thinks it was five or six years ago. Lawrence was playing Messalonskee, and the Eagles were off to a .500 start. Larrabee said the Messalonskee coach at the time, Heather Merrill, talked about how the team was expected to have a winning record every year.

“I remember thinking, ‘God, that must be nice,’ ” Larrabee said.

Now in her eighth season at Lawrence, Larrabee also has built that kind of field hockey program. The Bulldogs won 10 games last season and proved they were for real by doing it again this fall.

For her efforts in building the program and making Lawrence a strong team in Eastern A, Larrabee is the choice as the Morning Sentinel Field Hockey Coach of the Year. Also considered were Paula Doughty, who led Skowhegan to a second consecutive state championship, and Mt. View coach Gloria Hewett, whose team won 12 games after losing several key players to graduation.

In some ways, this season was similar to last season for the Bulldogs. Lawrence finished 10-5-1 in both seasons, and each ended with a loss to Messalonskee in the Eastern A semifinals.

“But I think this year, I saw the most team bonding,” Larrabee said. “When we couldn’t swing the momentum, it wasn’t one player or the captain who stepped up. It was the whole team saying, ‘We can’t get down on each other.’ ”

Lawrence also made more of a statement this year against the league’s top teams. While Lawrence had nine seniors, none of them are playing field hockey in college. Skowhegan and Messalonskee each have players who will be playing at Division I schools next year and are on national teams. Still, the Bulldogs gave Skowhegan one of its toughest games of the year (a 1-0 Skowhegan win) and they tied Messalonskee early in the year.

Cindy Breau, who coached the Bulldogs for 18 years and is Larrabee’s assistant, thinks how Larrabee works with the young players is a big reason the Bulldogs have showed they can play with those teams.

“She’s very much into field hockey as to how it should be played,” Breau said. “She’s not the kind of coach who says, ‘Push the ball into their feet to get a call.’ She coaches them to get the most out of what you have and how to do the sport justice. She’ll tell you what you need to hear, and then she’ll help you fix it, and then she’ll check in on you.”

While Lawrence posted its first victory over Cony in some time, the tie with Messalonskee probably meant even more for the Bulldogs.

“It wasn’t one of those ‘hit and chase’ and we got lucky,” Larrabee said. “I was really impressed that it was a tie, and we had a chance to win, and in some parts of the game, we outplayed them.”

“I feel like with us, we always play up,” Lawrence goalie Emily Lambert said. “We wanted to show how good we could be.”

The Bulldogs will be young next year, but Larrabee points out they now have players who have been exposed to the game since the early years of grade school. Larrabee said the program has strong support from parents and boosters, and yes, the expectation that it will be competitive.

“My first year, parents wearing blue and gray, and not a thing had field hockey on it,” Larrabee said. “Now, we travel an hour and a half away, and we have as many fans as the home team.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

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