GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland boys’ lacrosse team will be one of the largest in the Suburban Council this season.

There are 30 players on this year’s Dutchmen squad, by far the most players Coach Sean McConaghy has had on the varsity team.

“I’ve never kept over 25,” McConaghy said. “We have a big junior class and a bunch of sophomores. We’ve only kept one or two before.

“We have a ton of juniors and a bunch of sophomores that are new,” the coach added. “We have seven seniors that have been there before. We get our goalie back and a couple other players back.”

Returning for the Dutchmen is goaltender Nick Koss, who is one of four captains on the team. Aaron Cahill will anchor the midfield. Cahill was a captain of the Adirondack Team at the Empire State Games last summer and is a captain for the Dutch this spring.

Brian Linehan returns to the midfield and Quinn Connell returns to play at attack. Paul Malamood, Andrew Barr, and Jon Fogel return to play defense.

“Having 30 kids is huge,” Koss said. “There weren’t a lot of cuts. We have a few kids back that took a few years off. They are looking to contribute.”

Two key juniors also return for the Dutchmen: Kip Stillman on defense and Rory Nunamacher in the midfield.

“Kip and Malamood are back on defense,” McConaghy said. “But we have two returning defensemen that did not see a lot of time. Fogel and Barr are expected to step up now.

“Our midfield is deep,” McConaghy added. “Rory and Aaron Cahill are both Empire players and league all-stars. Rory had a six goal night in the finals. Linehan will be helping us as a senior.”

“Rory and Kip are also seniors,” Koss said of the other two Dutch captains. “They have been around long enough, they are like seniors on this team.”

There are 15 juniors on the roster. Joining Stillman as defenders are Alex Trolenberg, Jake Burns, and Chuck Zajac.

Joining Nunamacher in the midfield are Dan Lee, Justin Bates, Bobby Davis, Joe Romano, Kevin Kost, and Collin Burg. Juniors on attack are E.J. Genzano, Anthony Powers, Matt Siracusa, and Travis Moore.

“We have more young guys than usual,” Stillman said. “It just shows what our program has gotten to be.”

“We got Kevin Kost back,” McConaghy said. “He played in seventh grade, but since he’s been playing basketball all the time. He’s a nice athlete to have. He’s a jock.

“We also got Collin Burg from hockey,” McConaghy added. “When they get their sticks and games on track, they’ll be great.”

Kost and Burg were big stars for their respective teams this past winter.

“It’s not like they guess they’ll play,” Koss said. “They want to contribute to this team. They’ve seen what we’ve been building and what we’ve built from last year.”

Sophomores on the team are midfielder Eugene Sellie, defender Kevin Murray, defenseman Cody Futia, goalie Christian DePersis, midfielder Marc Apicella, middie Taylor Muztafago, attackman Brian Dyer, and attacker Paul Jones.

“There is a lot of excitement,” McConaghy said. “It’s in the locker room, in practice, and during tryouts. It’s nice to have 30 guys. They really put pressure on each other when we’re running and lifting.”

Having that many players also has other benefits in practices and when games start.

“There is a lot of competition in practice,” McConaghy said. “They are competing every single day and hopefully that competition carries over into games.

“[Assistant Coach Kris] Bremmer said the other day we always have nine middies. We’ll have more than that so we’ll have guys go up and down the field. Usually we have guys that specialized, but we are going to run these guys into the ground.”

Dan DePersis will also be an assistant coach this season for the Dutchmen.

The Dutchmen have played in the last three Class A championship games, though they lost all three to rival Niskayuna. The Dutch want to go a step further.

“This is the year we go past the finals,” Koss said. “That’s the goal. We want to get to the state semifinals at least.”

“Our team goal is to get past the sectional finals,” Stillman reiterated. “We want to get beyond that to states this year.”

But they have to understand it takes hard work, said McConaghy, who had to give his team an early season reminder.

“Yesterday [Monday] at the end of practice,” the coach said, “the guys were acting like we’re outside now, we’ll be in the finals. We got that attitude out of them quick. They weren’t being cocky; they were just forgetting the big picture.”

Though there is a lot of talent coming back, the Dutch will have to fill in some spots that were left open due to graduation.

“Every year, it seems we have losses at attack,” McConaghy said.

Gone on the offense are Uriah Myrie and Matt Stillman. Myrie is sixth all-time in scoring for the Dutchmen and Stillman had a breakout senior season, scoring 55 goals.

Also graduated from last year’s team is All-American defenseman Scott Raffensperger and face-off midfielder Jordan Dubose. Both are playing at the University at Albany.

“We are filling in with guys that are pretty good,” McConaghy said. “Travis, Paul, and Quinn all played last year.”

“We haven’t had that hard of a time finding people to fill those spots,” Stillman said. “We’re looking to get a lot of things out of this group.”

The Dutchmen are in their second week of practice and will get an extra week of practice before their first game on April 2.

“We’re going to enjoy having an extra week of practice in the pre-season,” McConaghy said. “Usually, we start at the end of March. We’ll use the extra week, especially after the way we started last year, losing to Bethlehem and getting crushed by Niskayuna.”

“We needed that last year,” Stillman said. “It taught us a lesson. That can’t happen and won’t happen this year.”

McConaghy will rely on the seniors to help guide this team.

“It’s tough only having seven seniors,” he said. “But they provide leadership in practice. They’re bigger, taller, and stronger, especially by the end of their senior season. They are young men.”

“There are a lot of expectations,” Koss said. “We know we have the ability, but we also know that it’s not going to come easy.”