Ben Vallimarescu became a celebrity for a week at Dalton. He couldn’t avoid attention after being named to the NYPost.com poll asking who is the city’s best boys lacrosse player.
The senior midfielder was told by teammates his name was on the list the day after it was posted. Later that night many of his friends asked people to vote for him on Facebook. The next day at a school assembly team captain Jeremy Allen announced to the whole school that everyone should cast a vote for Vallimarescu.
“Him making the announcement to the whole school was pretty cool with everyone looking at me,” he said. “It was pretty exciting. The next day a couple of teachers were asking me about it.”
Their hard work and efforts paid off. Vallimarescu won by receiving 33,481 or 34.32 percent of the 97,551 votes cast in the week-long poll. Hugo Francis of Poly Prep was second with 16,508 votes and New Dorp’s Chris Fiore third with 14,878. Vallimarescu said he was happy just to be named in the group, among players he has played with and against. He believes it means a lot for the up-and-coming program to have a player nominated.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I’m honored people would vote for me for something like that. I’ve spent a lot long time playing lacrosse. I started when I was little.”
Vallimarescu began playing the sport with Doc’s Lacrosse, a non-profit youth lacrosse league based in Manhattan, he competed in middle school and is now one of the city’s most dangerous scorers. He had some big shoes to help fill when leading scorer Mark Philipps graduated. Vallimarescu and his teammates have raised their game. He’s scored 31 goals and dished out eight assists.
“I knew that I would have to step in in his absence because he was such a key part of the team,” he said. … “I think this year my teammates have done a great job and we have all chipped in.”
Dalton, ranked No. 6 in the city by The Post, is off to a 3-5 start in Ivy League play, looking to build off of last year’s successful campaign. One of those wins was a season-opening defeat of Riverdale where Vallimarescu scored five times. The Tigers also have a one-goal loss to Poly Prep.
“We feel like we can beat anyone in the league,” Vallimarescu said. “We feel like if we play well at the right time we can make a run at the playoffs.”