Last year, the girls lacrosse team, along with all spring sports took a big hit when COVID shut down school and sports teams. Students were devastated when they could no longer continue to play their sport, as their season had barely begun, and could not wait for the next chance to play. 

After over a year of anticipation, on Mon., April 12, girls lacrosse tryouts began marking the start of their season. 

“I’m really excited to get to have fun playing and working on my skills,” sophomore Correne Bellem said. “We only got to play one game last year.”

This year, the season is compressed in order to give all sports seasons the opportunity to happen. COVID prevented sports from happening at the start of the school year, so the county decided to squeeze in all seasons later in the year. This meant that the seasons would not be able to be as long as they usually would be. 

“I’m glad that all sports were able to happen,” senior Natalie Nguyen said. “Even though my season was compressed, it was worth it to be able to give more opportunities to play.”

Along with this, seasons were forced to overlap to ensure maximized playing time. As one was ending, the other was starting in the same week. This required some students to miss the start of their tryouts.

“I had to miss the first day of lacrosse tryouts,” Nguyen said. “Field hockey had their last game on monday so I had to come to tryouts a day late.”

This overlap created little challenge for multisport athletes and they quickly adjusted to their new seasons.

“It was a little difficult coming to tryouts a day late because I didn’t know what to expect,” Bellem said. “But there were a lot of girls who missed the first day so the coach was sure to adapt tryouts to work for everyone.” 

Many field hockey coaches are also lacrosse coaches, so they also had to miss the first day of tryouts. However, due to the large number of girls lacrosse coaches, little challenge arose as field hockey was ending and lacrosse was beginning. 

“We have 5 coaches on our Lax staff, so we could have lacrosse green days with Coach Grace Hatch,” Lacrosse and Field Hockey Coach Cindy Hook said. “The rest of us focused on helping our field hockey teams continue to learn and finish strong in the District and Regional Tournament.” 

The risk of COVID also made this season different from previous years in order to protect the players, coaches and their families. 

“We follow all rules to help us avoid the virus,” Hook said. “Distancing whenever possible, hand sanitizer before and after water breaks and masks when not actually playing or conditioning.”

For fall and winter sports, masks were required at all times when not drinking water, however, this has been lifted for spring sports and they are only required to wear them when they are not playing. 

COVID has also affected the numbers of athletes on the roster. Many chose not to play this year due to the risk the virus imposed. 

“We do not have enough girls to fill a Varsity and a JV team this time,” Hook said. “Before Covid we had enough for 3 teams.”

Despite these difficulties, the girls lacrosse team looks forward to a good season. 

“I am optimistic about this year,” Bellem said. “We have a lot of very skilled players.” 

To see the girls lacrosse team in action, you can attend their first game at home against Justice High School on April 26. Link to the documentary created by IB Film students on the Girls Lacrosse and Field Hockey Coach, Cindy Hook: https://vimeo.com/222566255