Win the day. Those three simple words have come to mean so much for the Nease boys lacrosse program.
It was a mantra that Max Gurowski began preaching to his players since taking over as the team’s head coach seven years ago.
The saying was a favorite of Gurowski’s former Jacksonville University lacrosse teammate Corey Lovrich, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 21 after a battle with colon cancer.
According to Gurowski, Lovrich was a born leader and that resulted in him being named captain on the JU lacrosse squad as a sophomore, which is “extremely rare.”
“The first time I shared it with them at practice, it got emotional because it was still so fresh,” Gurowski said. “His legacy was one of extreme hard work and battling through adversity.”
Nowadays, Lovrich still leads but he does it with that legacy, which Gurowski does his part to honor every day when he wakes up.
“He always told us to win the day,” Gurowski said. “I think it’s the least I can do as a teammate.”
The No. 88 always holds special meaning at both Nease and JU, because that was the jersey number Lovrich wore.
After each practice, a Nease player of the day is chosen by his teammates and awarded the honor of wearing the No. 88 jersey for the next practice.
“It is truly the top honor anyone can receive in the program,” Gurowski said.
The number is retired at JU and the Dolphins created the “88 Win The Day Club,” which people can donate to with the mission of enhancing the overall experience of the university’s lacrosse student-athletes.
Someone who played lacrosse for the Panthers and now for the Dolphins is Matt Pounder, who has always felt a special connection to Lovrich’s story ever since he first heard it.
“It kind of embodies my life,” Pounder said. “You have to leave every day with a win.”
According to Pounder, those “wins” are not just for on the field, but also in the game of life. A “win” can be anything from studying a little longer for a big test or doing a good deed for someone else.
“Striving to be the best person you can be, by being a little better than you were the day before,” Pounder said.
Pounder said that if the number wasn’t retired at JU, he would definitely wear the No. 88, as his former Nease teammate Ashton Wood does at Mercer.
Jersey numbers are just one of the ways Nease lacrosse players past and present continue to carry on Lovrich’s legacy.
Both Nease and JU wear No. 88 stickers on their helmets and the Dolphins have Lovrich’s old jersey hanging in their locker room.
Other ways include Pounder, Christian House and Colin Long getting “win the day” tattoos, Bryce Pegram carving the saying in a pumpkin for Halloween and in the form of artwork created by Nease students.
According to Pounder, it was the “win the day” mindset that helped get him through his rehab process following a torn ACL prior to last season.
He got his tattoo, a “WTD” across his inside wrist shortly after getting ACL surgery on Oct. 7, 2020.
“Even though he didn’t go to Nease, he has had such an impact on so many people there,” Pounder said.
The lengths that former players are willing to go to demonstrate what “win the day” means to them is an example that those three words have grown into a culture at Nease and JU that only grows with each year that passes.
“It’s all about attacking today, because we never know what it will bring,” Gurowski said. “We say every day that it goes much beyond winning. There’s nothing like when guys (former players) come back and talk about how it has affected their lives.”
