Anthony Gilardi believes there is still a lot in front of his Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team.

But there’s no denying the chance to compete in a conference tournament isn’t one of them this season.

The Seawolves, along with the rest of Stony Brook’s programs, were declared ineligible last week for America East postseason play after the school’s decision to leave the league for the Colonial Athletic Association. That means Stony Brook won’t have access to the America East’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

And so Gilardi, his staff and the Seawolves are forced to put into high-profile practice a much-repeated coaching aphorism: Control what you can control.

For starters, that means getting ready for Saturday’s season opener at home against Fairfield.

“One of the lessons from that COVID year is we’re still playing,” Gilardi said. “We’re still practicing. We’re still together as a family. Those are the most important things. We have an opportunity every day to compete against each other and on Saturdays to compete against somebody else as a Stony Brook lacrosse family.”

The America East’s decision doesn’t prevent Stony Brook from earning an NCAA at-large berth, but realistically it leaves the Seawolves with little margin for error. Stony Brook, which went 8-6 last year, has notable home games against Rutgers (March 5) and Syracuse (March 19) next month.

All three of the Seawolves’ losses in conference play during the regular season last year came by a goal. The America East figures to be a scramble at the top again this season, and the Seawolves were picked to finish second by the league’s coaches.

It would come as little surprise, then, if Stony Brook left the America East with a regular season championship in Gilardi’s third season.

“The culture is in place better,” Gilardi said. “The older guys know the expectation. They’re teaching the culture and the expectations to the younger guys. I think that’s where we’ve seen the most growth. Obviously, we have a lot of new faces and brought in a lot of transfers and freshmen, and those guys have fit in nicely due to the leadership we have.”

The transfer wire was fruitful for Stony Brook last season. Dylan Pallonetti, a Maryland transfer, had 36 goals and 19 assists to earn offensive player of the year and rookie of the year honors from the America East in 2021.

This season, the Seawolves welcome Michigan grad transfer Kevin Mack back to Long Island to quarterback the offense. Mack made 34 starts for the Wolverines and had 95 points over four seasons at the Big Ten school.

Also in the mix is defenseman Jacob Williams, a two-time Division II All-America selection at Mount Olive who projects as one of Stony Brook’s best players at that end of the field — no small thing for a team whose greatest strength might be its defensive midfield.

“You’re trying to find the right fit with transfers,” Gilardi said. “Dylan coming home was a big one. Guys that want to come home and have a different experience is something we’re looking forward to, but it’s also for us saying this is a hole we need [to fill] and finding a guy who can come in and compete in that position.”

If there’s one thing that is absent, it’s a sense of grievance. Gilardi is emphasizing the 14 games in front of the Seawolves, a number they didn’t come close to reaching in 2020 when the pandemic short-circuited the season. They also had a complete fall and don’t have the anxiety of twice-weekly COVID testing, both a contrast to last season.

It’s an impressively upbeat way of looking at a decision that, at minimum, took away a potential opportunity from the Seawolves in the final month of the season.

“We’re choosing to understand what we have and what we can do together,” Gilardi said. “This team is going to be linked together forever because of this. It’s something we want to make sure that when it’s all said and done, this team goes down in such a great way that we’ll be linked in a positive way for the rest of history.”