Lebiedz worked way up to championship goalie for Derryfield boys lacrosse

The Derryfield School boys lacrosse team had just punched its ticket back to the Division II championship game and Parker Lebiedz had doubts.

The sophomore was coming to the end of his first season as the Cougars starting goalie, and although his team only had a couple of days to prepare for a title game against Portsmouth, he wondered if he was doing the right thing.

"We played Windham in the semifinals of that season, and we played Windham earlier in the season and they had Alex Ryan," Lebiedz said. "Terrific player and I did a good job keeping him in check. I was going into that game thinking I’m going to do it again and he’s not going to know what hit him."

Instead, it was Lebiedz who got a surprise, as Ryan scored six goals for Windham, but Derryfield came away with an 11-8 victory.

"I didn’t see the ball, I wasn’t getting down on anything," Lebiedz said. "I just had no idea what I was doing out there. I was way in over my head. If some clutch defense and good scoring didn’t come in late, I don’t know if we would have reached that final.

"I went home that night being like you are playing in the state championship game, what are you going to do?"

Derryfield coach Chris Hettler had an answer, but it wasn't going to do Lebiedz or the Cougars much good before they faced the Clippers.

"That game was unfortunate because it exposed at that time a flaw in his game," Hettler said. "He was still struggling with low-to-low hard shots. If you watch that game, I think four or five of (Portsmouth's) first shots were that type of shots.

"We had the championship team, it was building up his confidence to that level so that going into his junior year, we’re winning it this year. It’s a credit to his mental resolve."

The Cougars ended up losing that title game in 2022 to Portsmouth, 16-10, but Lebiedz stuck with it, helping Derryfield get back to the championship last year and win it.

This year, as a senior, Lebiedz has helped the Cougars to a 15-2 record and the No. 2 seed in the D2 tournament. Derryfield will open the playoffs at 7 p.m. Saturday at home against No. 7 Oyster River-Newmarket.

Not a bad run for someone who had not only never been a goalie, but who hadn't played lacrosse - or any sport for that matter - before eighth grade.

It was during the 2018-19 school year, before Hettler became Derryfield's Athletic Director and was still teaching in the middle school, that the coach started to notice something about his boys lacrosse team.

"I look at my roster three or four years out and project where we need kids," he said. "We don’t have a goalie coming up. I’ve got to get someone on the roster, trying it out."

Among the middle schoolers, there was a kid "who was big and strong, and he looked the part," Hettler said.

"He looked like an athlete that could have potential," the coach added. "We had a club that used to go out during the day called Rain or Shine, and we used go out in the woods and do crazy things. Every time we went out, I’d say ‘hey Parker, what are you doing this spring?’ I think I wore him down. He probably just said yes to get me to stop asking him to play lacrosse."

Lebiedz finally said he'd give it a try and was set to play for the Derryfield middle school team in the spring of 2020 ... and then the Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of the season.

Unsure of whether Lebiedz would still want to play the following year, of if he'd even return to Derryfield, Hettler decided to do whatever he could.

"I got a goalie stick, I got it strung, I went to his house and socially distant said ‘here you go,'" he said.

Lebiedz decided to stick with Derryfield and lacrosse, and for his freshman year, he was able to get time on the junior varsity while a trio of senior goalies - Jaxon Snyder, Ryan Caparrelli and Liam Hill - played on varsity.

"I got a lot of mentoring from them," Lebiedz said. "I got a lot of tips from them. I spent a lot of time being indoctrinated into the world of being a goalie and getting closer to the mentality. I got closer to realizing this was the sport I wanted to do, the sport I fell in love with."

He also spent a lot of time over the summer in 2021 working with Hettler to try to improve stopping the ball. Everything else, the coach felt like they could worry about later.

"We would work around his work schedule," Hettler said. "We were getting up at 7 or 8 a.m., coming to the turf, trying to avoid the heat, and built it from scratch. There were some moments where I was like I don’t know if I have the energy to do this, but it was so rewarding to see how far he came that summer."

Lebiedz had a strong start to that sophomore year, getting wins in the opening week against Winnacunnet and Bedford. There was also the regular season win over Windham, and after the season was done, it was time to work on even more.

"This was a kid who didn’t play lacrosse," Hettler said. "I was turning him into a goalie as a ball stopper, but once he got the ball, it was an adventure. To his credit, he understood what part of his game he needed to improve. Stickhandling was another thing. We spent that summer doing cradling and dodging drills to get him comfortable with that."

With the summer between sophomore and junior year being an important one for someone who wants to play in college, Lebiedz started participating in more camps with the New Hampshire Tomahawks, taking shots from some of their top players.

Ultimately, he decided against finding a school where he could continue playing lacrosse and opted to look for something that was a fit academically first.

"I am going to Syracuse to study civil engineering and I fully plan on playing on their club team," he said. "I went through high school knowing I wanted to focus on academics in college. I didn’t play that much club. I played one fall season.

"I realized I could (play in college), because that fall I had interest from some colleges. It made me realize if I had focused on it, I probably could have played. But I’m happy with my decision."

Hettler is, too, and that goes not only for what Lebiedz has planned for after graduation, but also that he decided to give lacrosse a try.

"It was unbelievably rewarding," the coach said. "I’ve had the privilege to develop several goalies from scratch here at Derryfield, but he’s the first one that completely from scratch that has taken us all the way to a championship. It was really neat to see proof of concept. If you do these drills, it will train you to do these things.

"I’ve always known it, but to see it in action was pretty neat. And to see it pay off that quickly, and I can’t take credit for that. He put in the work and it takes a special person to dedicate yourself to doing that, especially with that pressure."