The Beginning - 1935-1964

Lacrosse at Exeter has a long and rich history that dates back to its beginning in the Spring of 1935 with the very first team coached by Exeter's father of lacrosse, Mr. Norman Hatch. "Hatchy", a famous Instructor in Latin, led that first squad to a 5-2 record that included a 9-6 win in the very first Exeter-Andover game. The small game schedule in the early years was dominated by college freshman teams from UNH, Tufts, Harvard, M.I.T., and Dartmouth. Andover and Deerfield remained the only prep school opponents until Governor Dummer, Mt. Hermon, Tabor, and eventually St. Paul's started competing. The schedule remained rather consistent for almost 40 years into the mid 70's.

Mr. Hatch turned the head coaching duties over to language instructor Mr. Bob Kesler in the 1938 season. Coach Kesler, usually assisted by English instructor Mr. Alan Vrooman, began a string of great seasons that extended until 1951. During a span of 14 seasons, the Exeter lacrosse team was undefeated in five seasons, defeated Andover 12 times, and sufferred a total of only six losses! It should be noted that Coach Hatch had voluntarily decided to become in charge of the very popular club lacrosse program that was used to train the players who would eventually move up into the varsity program.

When Mr. Kesler's responsibilities as a Dean caused him to step down as a lacrosse coach, his faithful assistant Alan Vrooman took over head coaching duties in 1952. He was joined by a young instructor in Physical Education and wrestling coach named Ted Seabrooke as his assistant, and they coached together for the next 10 seasons. Their record over that span of time was an amazing 77 wins and only 19 losses, with an 8-1-1 record versus Andover. When Coach Vrooman stepped away from lacrosse after the 1961 season, he had coached for 15 consecutive seasons.

The Middle Years- 1965-1980

After a brief 3-year stint as head coach by Mr. Howard "Mac" Fish, the lacrosse program was turned over to Coach Seabrooke. Mr. Seabrooke, along with a variety of assistant coaches, ran the lacrosse program from the mid-60's until the early 1970's. Ironically, it was an Exeter graduate and former captain of the 1939 team, Bob Hulburd, that was now in charge of the lacrosse program at Andover. Andover lacrosse had suffered 26 defeats with only 3 wins and 1 tie in the first 30 years of their lacrosse rivalry with Exeter. Largely due to the leadership and influence of Bob Hulburd, the Andover Blue would turn things around. Andover completely turned the tables on Exeter starting in 1965, and would win 25 of the 30 contests played from 1965 through 1994. Since then, Exeter has gone back on top and had the upper hand in the late 90's and early 2000's. Mr Jim Brewer took over the program in 1974 for five years, and in 1979 he passed the torch to a young Mathematics Instructor named Eric Bergofsky, who had assisted Jim the year before.

The Present Era

Coach Bergofsky has been the head varsity coach every year since the Spring of 1979. The Exeter schedule has seen major revisions since the days when it was dominated by college JV teams and a few prep schools. With the explosion in the popularity of lacrosse in New England, Exeter has transformed its schedule into 20 competitions that include public schools in NH, Maine, and Mass. The traditional rivalries of Andover, Deerfield, and Mt Hermon, are still there, but the college JV teams have all been replaced by other prep schools that include Connecticut powerhouses like Loomis Chaffee. Lacrosse has retained it immense popularity with the student body, and many graduating seniors continue to play lacrosse competitively at the college level. Exeter graduates have recently played at DI schools Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, Vermont, Fairfield, and Holy Cross. In addition, Exeter players are making a major impact at DIII schools that include recent national champion Middlebury, as well as Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, Trinity, Tufts, Amherst, Washington & Lee, Nazareth, and Connecticut College.