Matt Valakos went without lacrosse for 660 days.

Lacrosse has been a big part of Valakos' life since he started playing as a third-grader. The East Lyme High School senior played varsity during both his freshman and sophomore years.

Then came the pandemic which deep-sixed the 2020 CIAC spring season. Valakos didn't play on any traveling teams that summer and worked on his game alone.

Here's the thing: When lacrosse returned this spring, Valakos had gotten better.

“He absolutely did,” East Lyme coach Gary Wight said. “Having some time to reflect about his game and how he could up it definitely had a huge influence on (our) season.”

Valakos was one of 16 Connecticut players this season to make the United States Lacrosse All-America team, making him an easy choice as The Day's 2021 All-Area Boys' Lacrosse Player of the Year.

"Mentally (the time off) helped me mature as a player," Valakos said. "I got to watch a lot more college games and just film in general. You learn certain moves and tactics. You pick up on certain play styles. For me, that helped watching those older guys because I would watch them and then later go outside and try to mimic their moves. In that sense, that helped me grow as a player."

Valakos comes from a lacrosse family. His mother, Maura, played at Conard High School in West Hartford. All of his uncles played it, too. His uncle, Brendan Sheehan, played at Yale.

"I remember watching Yale lacrosse games at my grandmother's house (when he was young) with my uncle (Brendan)," Valakos said. "I remember watching with them and seeing how fast-paced it was and how different it was from baseball. I wanted to try it."

Valakos had 64 goals and 68 assists this season and earned first team honors on the Connecticut High School Coaches' Association Class M all-state team. He's just as good in the classroom as he's been accepted to the honors program at  the University of South Carolina. He plans to study biological sciences and hopes to play on the school's club lacrosse team.

"No matter where he was, he was a threat," Bacon Academy coach Brian Martin said. "Whenever he had the ball, it was really hard to stay in front of him. I remember we had scouted (East Lyme) and kind of knew that he had a dodge. He could dodge around the left side and almost shoot with no angle by basically just having his hands in front of him and the length he had on his arms and on the stick was long enough to create an angle to score. So we told our defense and we told our goalie that.

"One of the first two or three goals (East Lyme) scored against us it was him dodging from the left side and taking that no-angle shot. And I just looked at my defense and looked at my goalie and said, 'Hey, we told you that was going to happen.' Things like that, you can scout as much as you want. You can tell the kids what's going to happen but when a player can do things even though you know he's going to, that just shows how good of a player he is and how dynamic he is."

Valakos helped East Lyme go unbeaten during the regular season and win the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I tournament championship. The Vikings (16-1) reached the Class M semifinals where they were beaten by eventual champion Weston, their only loss of the year.

"I didn't expect to make it to the semifinals (this season)," Valakos said. "With (2020) gone, I didn't know what kind of team we were going to have. I knew the players that we had but I didn't know how they were going to play with a whole year gone, where their talent levels were at. East Lyme hadn't made the state finals since (2009) and that's in a non-pandemic year when you had your whole squad fully practicing and whatever. To make it to the state semis, it was an accomplishment for us. It exceeded my expectations."

Wight said of Valakos: “He definitely made an effort to reach out to the younger players and made connections. Coming off (a year off) without having a lot of guys with varsity experience, I think he provided them with confidence, whether it was the freshmen or a junior or senior that didn’t have a lot of varsity experience.

“I think just having his natural leadership on the field just added to the team, the chemistry that we had this season.”

n.griffen@theday.com

The Day's 2021 All-Area Boys' Lacrosse Team

Player

of

the

Year – Matt Valakos (East Lyme)

Attack – Cam Elenteny (Stonington), Quinn Perkins (NFA), Ryan Whaley (East Lyme)

Midfield – Anthony Gesino (East Lyme), Kellen Paparella (Bacon Academy), Garisen Wiese (East Lyme)

Defense – Kyle Marino (Stonington), Tucker Mazzulli (East Lyme), Jake Tukey (East Lyme)

Goalie – Jake Kozlowski (Waterford)

Long-stick midfield – Shawn Beebe (Fitch)

Short-stick midfield – Quincy Foren (Waterford), Nehemiah Owens (Montville)

Faceoff specialist – Will French (Stonington)

Utility – James Deichler (Fitch), JD Delaurentis (Williams), Josh Letellier (Fitch)

To stay updated on all of The Day's All-Area player of the year and team selections, visit http://www.theday.com/allareatheday