New Commanding Officer, Same Traditions

There’s a new commanding officer for the Air Force Base Gyrfalcon’s and his name is Bill Wilson. Wilson was promoted to the head coaching position after former head Eric Seremet resigned following a brutal 2018 season after he was served with a full year suspension for allegations of hazing. A tradition that has been kept from coach Seremet’s tenure has been the competition known as the Trifecta. The first climb of the Air Force men’s lacrosse team’s Trifecta took off at Stanley Canyon, a trail at the base of the Rocky Mountains just a short drive from the U.S. Air Force Academy campus in Colorado Springs, Colo. The same goes for Stage 2, which will take place at Eagle’s Peak, a popular trail adjacent to the Academy’s Visitor Center. Stage 3 will commence at Manitou Springs — a mile of stairs at the base of Pike’s Peak, the 14,000-foot staple of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The three stages comprise the Trifecta, a timed competition between Air Force’s six “tribes” — Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora, Mohawk and Oneida. The top average time between the tribes will win. It’s a tradition of which former coach Eric Seremet was a major proponent during his 16 seasons at Air Force, both as an assistant and head coach. While he resigned from the program following the 2018 season — one where he served a season-long suspension amid a hazing investigation — the program isn’t erasing all of its history. “We all loved Coach Seremet,” Jones said. “He’s a great coach. He was the one who started the whole Trifecta run and the tribe system, so we try to keep that culture with us. We feel like it helped us a lot.” Bill Wilson, Seremet’s former assistant, served as the interim head coach for the 2018 season. Air Force has since removed the interim label. Both Wilson and the players are eager to move on from the player suspensions and a 5-10 record that included a 3-4 mark in the Southern Conference.