Ted DiMando will never forget the moment.
It was after a rather non-descript practice earlier in the season, and the first-year Amesbury boys lacrosse coach wanted to check in with his captains for a specific reason. With the town’s youth program using the same field for practice right after, he wanted to get a head count of the players who were sticking around to help out.
Turns out … it was payment.
“They said to me, ‘Coach, we’re having a team spaghetti dinner tonight, and the admission is that you have to spend at least an hour helping out with the youth program,” said DiMando. “I just thought that was so awesome. As a coach, you hope for guys that are really talented lacrosse players. But having really good kids to start with is just as important.
“These guys are just extremely bought in to every aspect of what we’re trying to do as a program.”
And finally, the years of dedication have paid off.
The MIAA released its official boys lacrosse tournament brackets on Wednesday, and for the first time in its six-year program history, Amesbury (5-11) is a playoff team. The Redhawks have earned the No. 20 seed in Division 4, and will travel down to No. 13 Lunenburg for a first-round matchup on Friday with a 5:30 p.m. scheduled start.
After so many close calls, the Redhawks have finally done it.
“It means so much to them, especially the seniors” said DiMando, who served as an assistant for the program before taking over as head coach this spring. “The last couple of years, we knew that we were good enough to be a playoff team. So we didn’t set that as a goal coming into the year, because we already knew that we were good enough to do it. Our goal coming in was to win a first-round matchup.
“So we’re really excited, but we’re definitely not accomplished just yet.”
And by “close calls,” we mean it.
Of course, after officially becoming a varsity program in 2021, there were a couple of building years while getting off the ground. But take a look at where Amesbury has finished in the final MIAA power ratings over the last few years.
2025: No. 33 (0.0915 percentage points away from the playoffs).
2024: No. 33 (0.2905 points away from the playoffs).
2023: No. 33 (0.2112 points away from the playoffs).
Truly, like … that’s just BRUTAL!
Three straight years of being the “first team out” of the playoff field. A tough, sobering fact that even Stephen King would find too cruel to put in one of his horror novels.
But those pains of the past are now, mercifully, over.
And do you want to know the coolest fact about this year’s team?
Amesbury only has 17 athletes … in the entire program!
The team’s three senior captains, Chase Linsey (22g, 11a), Evan Murphy (37g, 17a) and Ollie Peters (6g, 3a), have been the primary faces behind the success. But freshman Dillon Edic has been huge in taking over as the team’s lead faceoff specialist, and the Redhawks have received great offensive contributions from the likes of Braden DeLisle (19g, 23a), Nicky Creps (25g, 12a), Ben Berg (18g, 1a) and Brooks Linsey (8g, 7a).
Now, obviously, Amesbury wishes that it had more athletes on the team.
But, in a strange way, the lack of depth gives the Redhawks some hope now heading into their first playoff game. You look at the strength of the Cape Ann League this year, and it’s probably the main reason why the Redhawks are in the playoffs. You have Newburyport (No. 6) and North Reading (No. 17) as high seeds in the Division 3 tournament, then looking at the top of Division 4 you’ll find Manchester Essex (No. 3), Ipswich (No. 4), Pentucket (No. 7) and Hamilton-Wenham (No. 9).
And in a lot of those games, Amesbury was within a couple of goals in the fourth quarter.
But fatigue from lack of numbers eventually set in.
“I’m very proud of these guys,” said DiMando. “We had really close games against both Hamilton-Wenham and Ipswich. We know how good those teams are, and we know that we can play with them.”
So for their first playoff appearance, what magic can the Redhawks pull off?
Here are the complete brackets for each division that includes a local team.
Division 3
Seeding: 1. Dracut (17-1); 2. Norwell (15-3); 3. Scituate (12-7); 4. Medfield (12-5); 5. Falmouth (16-3); 6. NEWBURYPORT (15-3); 7. Weston (15-1); 8. Wakefield (14-3); 9. Hanover (10-8); 10. Oakmont (15-3); 11. Shawsheen Tech (18-0); 12. Tewksbury (13-5); 13. Foxborough (12-6); 14. Pembroke (10-8); 15. Bishop Stang (15-2); 16. Nauset (7-11); 17. North Reading (12-6); 18. Dover-Sherborn (12-6); 19. Nashoba (9-9); 20. Pope Francis (15-3);
21. East Longmeadow (7-9); 22. Wilmington (9-9); 23. Holliston (12-6); 24. St. Mary’s (12-5); 25. Danvers (8-10); 26. Swampscott (9-9); 27. Hudson (15-1); 28. Old Rochester (8-8); 29. Tri-County (16-2); 30. Amherst-Pelham (10-7); 31. Saint John Paul II (14-3); 32. Groton-Dunstable (5-11); 33. Upper Cape Cod (15-3); 34. Saint Bernard’s (13-5); 35. Middleborough (10-8); 36. Bishop Fenwick (9-9); 37. Montachusett (11-5); 38. Northeast (14-4); 39. South Shore (9-9); 40. Minuteman (9-8); 41. Saugus (8-7)
Local First Round Games
Monday, June 1st
No. 38 Northeast at No. 27 Hudson winner at No. 6 Newburyport, 6:30 p.m.
Division 4
Seeding: 1. Cohasset (13-5); 2. Nantucket (15-3); 3. Manchester Essex (14-3); 4. Ipswich (11-4); 5. Winthrop (15-3); 6. Abington (13-5); 7. PENTUCKET (9-7); 8. Bourne (17-1); 9. Hamilton-Wenham (11-5); 10. Sandwich (7-11); 11. Advanced Math & Science (12-6); 12. East Bridgewater (11-7); 13. Lunenburg (13-4); 14. Nipmuc (8-8); 15. Rockland (8-10); 16. TRITON (6-10);
17. Stoneham (8-10); 18. Littleton (9-6); 19. Fairhaven (9-9); 20. AMESBURY (5-11); 21. Hull (4-13); 22. Lynnfield (2-16); 23. Dennis-Yarmouth (12-4); 24. Cape Cod (12-6); 25. Mount Greylock (16-1); 26. Bellingham (4-14); 27. South Hadley (9-8); 28. Old Colony (6-12); 29. Tyngsborough (5-11); 30. Wahconah (8-10); 31. Monomoy (5-13); 32. Seekonk (2-14); 33. Hoosac Valley (10-6); 34. Monson (11-6)
Local First Round Games
Friday, May 29th
No. 20 Amesbury at No. 13 Lunenburg, 5:30 p.m.
Monday, June 1st
No. 17 Stoneham at No. 16 Triton, 5:30 p.m.
No. 26 Bellingham at No. 7 Pentucket, 6:30 p.m.