On Feb 27 after school, girls lacrosse began tryouts. Since last season was the first year, few girls already know how to play. Given this, no cuts were made. However, for this season, they are stepping up their game by evaluating each player’s skill level for the team.

“It’s good to have something to look forward to so that the girls are always preparing for something,” lacrosse coach Ryan Darks said. “The fact that we have something that people are getting ready for, they know this day is coming, I think that’s huge.”

During the winter offseason, many players practiced running, scrimmaging and catching in their free time. The girls practiced during the offseason Monday through Thursday after school. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday they played an activity called wall ball where they throw the ball at a wall with their stick and then catch it when it bounces back. Afterward, the players would go to the track to do running exercises. On Wednesdays, they had scrimmages where they would pick teams and play small lacrosse games against each other. Offseason practices helped to improve the players’ speed, stick skills and knowledge of the game, and this will become necessary for future tryouts.

“The offseason was pretty beneficial because it was really fun practicing as a team, getting back together, and working as a team again even in the winter,” sophomore Mya Huddleston said.

To start off, the girls got into groups of five to run wind sprints, commonly known as suicides. They had two minutes and 50 seconds to complete them. Afterward, they were given one minute to do 25 each of the following in wall ball: left-hand throw and catch, right-hand throw and catch, and then switching throwing hands. While there was a lot of practice prior to tryouts, many still found parts of the tryouts challenging.

“Yes [it was challenging] and no [it was not challenging]. Yes, because it’s always going to be challenging because no one is perfect, and no because I’ve also been preparing for them,” freshman, Heaven-Lee Nichos said.

Overall, the team hopes there will be great things to come from the lacrosse program. Through lessons learned from last season, the coaches plan to build on what’s already been a great experience for those involved.

“We’re going to build a culture where we play for each other and we’re going to be a very close group and I think it’s going to be something that I think a lot of girls on this team never experienced before in a program and I think that’s what is going to turn us around,” Darks said.