Harvard commit Brandon DeBerardinis hopes to continue boys’ lacrosse success at Lake Norman
Lake Norman High School lacrosse coach James Brugger has a long roots in the sport’s hotbed of Long Island in New York.
With the help of talented players like two-time all-state selection Brandon DeBerardinis, Brugger’s Wildcats have done much to continue that legacy.
DeBerardinis, a Harvard commit, is just the latest product of the program that has dominated league play for its entire history while also advancing to six N.C. High School Athletic Association state championships with two titles.
“I think his academics and his skill level got him there,” Brugger said of DeBerardinis’ commitment to the Ivy League school last spring. “And as smart as he is in the classroom, he’s off the chart on the field. He’s the total package. He’s just different in all of the great ways. He’s smart, he’s articulate and he has fun playing lacrosse.”
Last year, DeBerardinis scored three goals in the Wildcats’ 11-10 overtime loss to Cary Green Level in the 2024 N.C. 4A state championship game at Durham County Stadium.
This year, DeBerardinis will look to join previous Wildcats like 2012 MVP Kyle Gradert and 2018 MVP Drew Elder who led the school to its two state titles.
“He works hard at his craft and he’s a great leader who is always working and teaching the other kids,” Brugger said of his standout player.
DeBerardinis is among eight future collegians on the Lake Norman roster. Others are John Torpy (Loyola), Statton Reher (Catawba), Kyle Mosley (Tampa), Cannon Wigginton (Lenoir-Rhyne), Ty Faucher (Queens), Mason Sulek (Loyola) and Teagun Schenck (Palm Beach Atlantic).
Brugger has been with the Lake Norman program since 2009, spending four years as an assistant before becoming head coach in 2013.
He brought with him a impressive background in the sport after playing for two National Lacrosse Hall of Fame coaches in the late Walter Sofsian at Elmont Memorial High School and the late Tom Postel of C.W. Post College. Brugger even spent time as Postel’s assistant coach — helping C.W. Post to the 1996 NCAA Division II national title.
“In Long Island, lacrosse is a way of life and I played for two Hall of Fame coaches,” Brugger said. “They had a huge impact on me not only in my coaching but the life lessons they taught me. I try to carry on their tradition by teaching what I was taught.”
At Lake Norman, that’s helped turn the Wildcats into a state power in the sport.
The Wildcats, Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons, Apex, Charlotte Catholic, Northwest Guilford, Myers Park, Wilmington Hoggard, Holly Springs, Winston-Salem Reynolds and Raleigh Broughton are the only schools to have qualified for all 14 NCHSAA-sponsored state championship tournaments. And only Cardinal Gibbons has more playoff wins (49) and state championship game appearances (seven) than Lake Norman’s 38 victories and six state championship games.
Locally, the Wildcats have a 87-2 league record with conference titles in 13 of 15 seasons highlighted by an 79-game league winning streak that lasted from 2009-21.
“We’ve had the same goals forever and all of the kids know it,” Brugger said. “It’s to win your conference championship and win a state championship.”