Justin Radatti said he now realizes the seniors who led the Summit boys lacrosse team to the 2016 state semifinals “made it kind of easy on us.”

“We had a crazy senior class, and so they kind of carried us,” said Radatti, an attacker who was a sophomore on that team.

Radatti and his senior classmates know they do not have the kind of depth the class of 2016 enjoyed — and their most decorated teammate, Konrad Collins, who earned all-state honors as a midfielder last spring, is injured and will be out for the season.

But Summit coach Luke Hansen has charged them with bringing along an unusually inexperienced roster. Half of this year’s team — including several freshmen — had not played on varsity before the start of the season.

“We’re carrying a few freshmen this year, which we traditionally do not do,” Hansen said, noting that freshman lacrosse players are beginning their Summit careers with more experience than ever thanks to expanding youth lacrosse programs in Bend. “The freshmen that we’ve taken (on varsity) this year totally deserve to be up here. They have an opportunity, and we expect them to be solid players for us this season and in the future.”

Radatti said this year’s freshman class reminds him of the seniors who took the Storm to 2016 semifinals in both size and talent.

“We haven’t had a freshman class this big ever, I don’t think, and they’re killing it,” Radatti said. “I was nervous at first, but they’ve definitely proved that they’re varsity level, and I’m not worried about them at all. I think they’re going to do great.”

Max Asevedo, who like Radatti was named to the High Desert Conference all-league first team last season, said he thinks back to the upperclassmen who came before him when his coach challenges him to help develop new players.

“They taught us how to lead the program,” Asevedo, a midfielder, said. “The intensity the seniors brought kind of showed us what we should bring to practice. When I was younger, sophomore and freshman year, I was soft-spoken. I would hear all the seniors yelling all the time. They would talk just to talk. I’ve taken that up, and I’m a lot more vocal now. I know what to say and when to say it.”

The Storm are more green than they have been in recent seasons, but they will also be taking on a more challenging schedule. Summit’s only local opponent will be Bend (although the Storm will have faced off against the Lava Bears three times by the end of the regular season). The rest of the calendar is packed with matchups against teams like Lake Oswego, Central Catholic and Lincoln, Portland-area programs with long traditions of lacrosse success.

“We’re taking on a more competitive schedule this year, that we have not done in the past, just due to the growth of our program,” Hansen said. “That’s how we’re going to develop here at Summit, is playing tougher competition.”

The Storm have opened the season 1-2, losing to Sherwood and Southridge before beating Bend, 10-7.

Despite his team’s relative youth, Hansen said, the group has a “higher lacrosse IQ.”

“Making good decisions at the right time and understanding where to be, executing it properly during the dynamic flow of the game, I think this team has potential to really excel in that area,” Hansen said. “It can be a little challenging with high school kids because the coaches are out on the field during practices, but obviously they’re not out there during the game. So really teaching those fundamentals about understanding the game and recognizing situational lacrosse and taking the appropriate action.”

Radatti said he has set the goal of having his team get as many ground balls as possible this season, and Asevedo added that getting and keeping possession will be the key to Summit’s success.

“It may not seem like a big deal if you miss a pass or whatever during the game, but that’s what I mean when I say ‘small things,’” Asevedo said. “You look back, and if you had caught a pass or something, we could have scored. And then the score line could have been totally different. Everything kind of adds up by the end of the game.”

Although Summit has had the most success of any local high school lacrosse program as the sport has grown in Central Oregon in recent years, Asevedo said he still thinks of his team as underdogs compared with the most competitive Portland-area teams.

“One of the cool things about Summit is that we don’t have a lot of commits” to college programs, Asevedo said. “We’re not super-crazy good. We haven’t been playing together since we were kids or anything. But we do the small things that make us a good team. And that’s why I’m excited to play those big guys up in Portland.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com