Where the Crawdads Sling: Inside Centenary's Historically Hot Start

The highest-scoring team in Division III men’s lacrosse is not Salisbury or Tufts. It’s not Christopher Newport, RIT, or any of those other traditional powerhouses, either.

No, the highest scoring team has 108 goals in four games. That program is Centenary College of Louisiana, located in Shreveport, L.A. 

The Gentlemen of Centenary have already broken multiple NCAA records. The most famous of which was Gamble Harvill’s 14-goal outing in a 21-11 win over Hendrix, a team that Centenary lost to last season 24-9.

Not to be outdone, sophomore attackman Noah Walsh put up an astonishing 20 points on six goals and 14 assists in the team’s most recent win, a 28-2 shellacking of Brevard.

The pair are putting up absurd numbers. Walsh is first nationally with 14.5 points per game (20 goals, 38 assists). Harvill is third at 11.25 points per game on 39 goals and six assists. The player in second, Elmhurst’s Eli Spence, produced 12 points in his only game this season.

Centenary’s recruiting philosophy is pretty simple — build from the inside out. That means constructing a team from the surrounding areas around Shreveport and then pulling from other pockets of similar growth.

Places like Arkansas, Texas, and even Illinois, where Centenary head coach Billy LeClair, or as his players call him, “Coach Billy,” is from.

“I went to a D-III school in Indiana, we won three games, and a week after I got home, the school cut the program,” Walsh said, referencing Anderson University, which cut its lacrosse programs after the 2025 season. “So, I went into the transfer portal, and I talked to a lot of coaches. Coach Billy is from where I’m from in Illinois, so we bonded over that, and he’s a lax rat like me, so we texted every day, not even about recruiting, but about lacrosse in general. That showed me a lot. It led me here.”

A big part of how this team has been able to score this much has been its control of the ball, helped in large part by freshman phenom Gavin Ferrington’s unbelievable 92.5-percent faceoff win rate. Ferrington, who was first-team all-state as a sophomore and junior at Parkway (La.) High School, was an All-American in his junior year.

He came to Centenary from humble beginnings.

“I started facing off my freshman year, and I tried out for a team that Coach Billy was coaching, and I got absolutely smoked at that tryout,” Ferrington said. “Afterward, Coach pulled me aside and told me that he could help me learn how to faceoff, and he’s been working with me from that point until now. We built a bond through that time. When it came time for me to make a choice, it felt like going home to go to Centenary and play for Coach Billy. I wouldn't want to play for anybody else.”  

Harvill, the sophomore attackman, really helped push Centenary into the cult status it’s currently enjoying. He came to the school through his brother, Gibson.

Both hail from nearby Bossier City and grew up with the same dreams of any young lacrosse player — to go Division I.

“My brother is one of the biggest reasons why I’m here,” Gamble Harvill said. “I’ve known Coach LeClair and Coach [Garrett] Faktor for years. Everyone has the dream to do Division I, and I really wanted to do that, but I think after Gibson committed here, we’re from here, and I loved the coaching staff. They’re all why I’m here.”

For those who would just characterize this early flash as just that, a closer look at past seasons does reveal a marked improvement. The offense scores freely now, but it took a while to build the chemistry to a level where the system can be productive.

It’s modeled off the 1-4-1 Virginia offense created by current Dartmouth head coach Sean Kirwan to maximize shot location through on- and off-ball movement. It’s completely changed how each of these young attackmen play the game.

“Before Centenary, I wasn't an assist guy,” Walsh said. “I was a ‘put my head down and go score’ kind of guy. Since I got here, I started working more on timing and when to look for cuts around the crease. Watching guys like Pat Kavanagh, Michael Sowers feed, the way their head is always up. Even if they’re open for a shot, they’re still looking to see if there is a skip or someone else is more open. In one of Sowers’ games, he had three goals and 11 assists, and I’ve watched that game over and over again.”

Still, there are plenty of challenges that Centenary is working to overcome. It’s tough to get teams to come down to Louisiana to play a game, even on spring break.

Centenary is not currently a member of a conference that sponsors lacrosse, so the prospect of coming down to play what is essentially an unknown quantity has resulted in a lot of teams declining. To boot, the Centenary ship runs lean, with a 25-man roster for this current season.

That number is up from past years, when the team had been as shallow as 15 players.

“Yeah, 25 is small, but it is big for us,” LeClair said. “Last year, we had 15-16 guys. But we were able to go 5-6 and beat teams that had 30-man rosters. So, we don’t look at people differently whether they have 10 or they have 50. We’re going to go out there, play lacrosse, and worry about us.”

Unless you’re a card-carrying member of the social media cult of Division IV Lacrosse, this might be the first time you’re even hearing about the boys from Centenary. The cult status that the team has acquired in this short run is not something that has been harmful.

In fact, the players and the coaches have come to appreciate and embrace it together.

“I don’t mind it,” LeClair said. “I didn't have the best college playing experience. I went to Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio, and after three years and eight coaches, they decided to shut down the program going into my senior year. So, I knew that I wanted to be a college coach. I told myself that if I ever got that opportunity, I would give my guys the best student-athlete experience possible. I want to give them everything I didn't get and everything they deserve. That’s what we are trying to build down here.”

Though the athletes at Centenary are traditionally known as the “Gents and Ladies,” the school unveiled a more traditional mascot in 2007 — the Catahoula Leopard Dog. While it doesn't have the southern pomp of a Gent or a Lady colloquially, the Catahoula has become a bigger hit with the younger alumni and the lacrosse program.

“It’s a hunting dog,” LeClair said. “It’s not the prettiest dog like a golden retriever, but it's gonna get the job done. It’s going to go into the mud, it’s going to go to work, it’s going to find the ducks and bring them back. That’s the mentality that we have brought into our program. We’re just a bunch of dogs.”