Kennett scoring machine Hulme is DLN Player of the Year
NEW GARDEN >> When Zach Hulme unleashes a shot, it can come from a number of different release points and from just about any conceivable angle – but there is a constant: it is going to be with incredible velocity and uncanny accuracy.
The Kennett senior left a lasting legacy on the Blue Demons’ lacrosse program, and his scoring prowess translated into a long and impressive list of record totals that, in some cases, are difficult to fathom.
“When you see his senior numbers, it’s like holy smokes, that’s crazy. He just shattered every record we have,” said his head coach Bob Allvord.
“He is an unbelievable talent who had an amazing senior year and great career,” added West Chester Henderson coach Sean Evans. “He is probably the best shooter to ever come through the Ches-Mont.”
Heady praise indeed, but warranted when you see the raw numbers: 123 goals and 157 points in 22 outings in 2023. That’s an average of six goals per game, and it set the single-season record at Kennett, in the Ches-Mont and in all of PIAA District 1.
“I thought Hulme was head and shoulders above everyone as the best player this year,” said Coatesville mentor Dan Ellis.
And we agree. In addition to being the Ches-Mont MVP and garnering All State and All American accolades, Hulme is also the Daily Local News’ Player of the Year.
“It is pretty crazy, especially after having the run we had at Kennett my sophomore year,” Hulme said. “But our team dynamic this spring was up there with previous teams. When we got the ball moving, we could score points.”
Here are just a few more milestones for Hulme:
- Set the Kennett single-game record for goals (10)
- Established the Kennett and Ches-Mont single-season points mark (157)
- Is the all-time leading goal scorer at Kennett and the Ches-Mont (273)
- Broke the Kennett, Ches-Mont and District 1 mark for career points (334)
And then there are the PIAA milestones for the season and career. The 123 goals in ’22 is No. 2 all-time in the state, and his point total is No. 8. And for his career, Hulme is No. 6 in goals and 25th in points.
“The one that surprised me is No. 6 in all-time goals just because I only had three years,” Hulme said.
It’s true. Like many seniors in 2022, Hulme lost his freshman season due to the pandemic.
“Zach is in the top tier of all of those career records and he did it in three seasons,” Allvord pointed out. “All the others around him had four. His totals are just crazy.
“(Former Avon Grove coach) Eric Jackson is helping out at Rustin. And after we played them, Eric made a point to grab me after the game and he said that Zach has the most pure shot the Ches-Mont’s ever seen, and he’s been around. That carries some weight.”
The middle of three sons to parents Ashleigh and Denis Hulme, Zach started playing lacrosse in second grade. Ironically, he started out at the youth level as a goalkeeper.
“And he was a pretty darn good one, but as he got older he got away from that,” Allvord said.
Kennett coaches, including Allvord, got a look at Hulme – a lefty — in workouts for a couple weeks before the 2020 season was cancelled, and were impressed. A year later Hulme burst on the scene, scored 89 goals during his sophomore season, and helped the Blue Demons capture the program’s first Ches-Mont title. Kennett later advanced all the way to the PIAA State Title Game.
“Those 89 goals propelled us to where we needed to be. He really blossomed that season,” Allvord said. “He was shooting at a collegiate level and he kept working.”
No longer an unknown youngster, Hulme spent much of the 2021 season facing defenses designed to stop him. He was routinely double-teamed and face-guarded, but still managed to pour in 61 goals as a junior.
“In the offseason, Zach really worked hard at trying to figure out dealing with the extra coverage,” Allvord said. “To come up with that many goals is truly unbelievable.
“It showed his maturity. Last season he got that attention and wasn’t sure how to deal with it. He decided to take it to another level.”
In 2023, Hulme was the epitome of a pure goal scorer. The lefthander was a terror all over the field, but particularly dangerous to the left of opposing goalies.
“Goalies aren’t used to seeing lefty shots,” Hulme said. “But I’ve been working on my shot for years and I feel like I’ve honed in on placements. I try to get out and shoot for at least an hour or an hour and a half every day.
“When (defenders) can’t guard you, they start committing penalties or yelling at their teammates. You can watch the whole defense crumble in front of you – it’s fun to see. That’s when you know we are doing something that is working.”
And if the opposition decided to put a defender solely on Hulme, he either got out of the way or tried to find teammates like Colin Jung or Bo Freebery, who combined to score 123 goals this spring.
“As a sophomore, it was way more common to have open shots because I was a younger player,” Hulme explained. “But this season, there was more face-guarding and double teams than I’ve ever seen. It was more of a challenge, and I definitely had to work harder to get the ball, but we made it work with picks, movement and good team offense.
“If the guy defending me was just staring at me with his back to the ball, sometimes I had to just back (the defender) out of the play and let my teammates go to work.”
In a second round district playoff game at Boyertown, Kennett trailed by four goals with less than four minutes on the clock. Up to that point, Hulme was having a modest outing by his standards. But he scored four of the Demons’ five goals the rest of the way to win it.
“Throughout the whole game he analyzed it out, and that last quarter he just picked it apart,” Allvord said.
“When his shot is dialed in, he can put it in places that nobody thought possible. He can find those corners better than anybody. He can shoot overhand, sidearm and underhand. The time he puts into it made his shot that deadly.”
Zach played high school lacrosse with his older brother Cole in ’22, and with his younger brother, Nate, this spring. He made a recruiting visit to NCAA Division I Marquette in the fall of 2021 committed soon thereafter.
“I absolutely fell in love with the place and the coaches,” he said.
Despite garnering a dazzling array of individual honors and records along the way, Hulme is most proud of being the leader of a group of players who formed the most successful class of lacrosse players ever to come through Kennett.
“It feels really good to put the Kennett program on the map and then keep us there,” he said. “I didn’t want the 2021 season to be a one-and-done deal. This is now a program that people don’t think of as an underdog anymore.”
