The 2024 East Providence High School boys' lacrosse season will be notable in at least one way for certain, as for the first time in the still relatively brief 16-year history of the program a Townie alum has become the head coach, Zach Pangborn.

Pangborn is a 2017 EPHS graduate. He played the sport all four years, as he said "at every position on the field," then immediately joined the coaching ranks as a volunteer assistant to former Townies' head coach Angelo Pizzi in 2018. Pangborn replaces Jon Monast, for whom he was also an assistant and who led the program the last two springs upon Pizzi's retirement in 2021.

Pangborn, for obvious reasons, knows his players quite well and several are returning starters. Senior Simon Palombo is back in the fold as a starting midfielder and a second season as a team captain. He shares the captaincy with senior starting goalie Jacob Leite and senior defensive starter Noah Mensah.

Senior Ryan Travassos is back for a third season as a starting defenseman. Classmate Lucas Saveory returns as the starting defensive middie, while another senior Braedon Conaty is the other defensive starter. Junior Nolan Travassos opens as the other starter in the midfield.

The Townies' starting three-man attack core returns in full from a year ago: senior Brandon Botelho, junior Zach Kollett and sophomore Keigan Grant.

The rest of the 2024 EPHS roster and possible contributors include: Jason Brown, Nathan Capelo, James Cassamas, Kendrick Costa, Jacob Daponte, Jordan Estrela, Cristian Gonzales, Samuel Jackson, Matthew Marlow, Alex Moreira, Tyler Rodrigues and Devon Savage.

"Right now the team is looking pretty good," said Pangborn, who works in operations and analytics at Automated Business Solutions in Warwick. "We have some experienced players on both sides of the ball, so we're hoping that experience can translate over to a few 'grind it out' wins this year. Reasonable expectations would be to win a few games and hopefully get into the playoffs."

The Townies managed just one victory in 14 tries a year ago in the Division IV ranks. EPHS opened its 2024 schedule with a narrow 2-1 loss to visiting Classical on Monday, April 1. Grant scored the lone Townie goal with an assist from Nolan Travassos. Leite made 16 saves.

"The number one thing I'm hoping for my first season as head coach is to teach my student-athletes to be better men. My goal is to make them a better man first, a better student second and a better lacrosse player third," said Pangborn, who is assisted this spring by Cameron Farias. "On the field success would be great to see, but in my opinion that isn't what high school athletics should solely be about."

Pangborn credited Pizzi, his former coach and compadre, for instilling in him his philosophy on the sidelines.

"My old coach Angelo Pizzi made a profound impact on the man that I am today, and I can't thank him enough for that," Pangbord added. "He's the reason that I'm coaching now. I'm trying to give back to my community and make the same impression on my athletes so that they can give back to their communities in the future, whether that be through coaching, being a teacher, volunteering at a community fundraiser or even just being a good neighbor."