The Watauga Lacrosse teams have had a remarkable comeback this season and have gained many new members on both the Men's and Women's teams.
”The program itself has been given a lot more attention from administration because of the the exponential growth in the team compared to last year,” said junior Jace Berke.
Due to this growth the program has had to buy more equipment and gear for the many new players they have.
While lacrosse previously had consisted of relatively small teams, an increase in players and specifically underclassmen getting involved has given the program more attention. Due to the physicality of the sport students must be well equipped and practices focus on skill as well as strength. Even still, injuries are very common amongst players.
”Injuries and illnesses have meant that we've had a handful of our starters out and that contributes to the need for so many back-up players,” said Berke.
Despite this the team has shown strong resilience in the face of defeats this season
This season the men’s team achieved its first win since the 2018 season beating Patton High 6-5. Although this was a great start for the team, the season has been a little rough.
”If you're asking about our losses a lot of them happen because of those injuries from our starters and less experienced players may be needed to play,” said Berke.
Lacrosse is a game that has a very high skill gap and sometimes the difference between a novice and experienced player is extreme. This means that often, the upperclassman step up and become the leaders of the team because they have more game experience.
“Most of the juniors are pretty well versed in skill and understand the game well enough that they can often teach the less experienced players through their example,” said Berke.
The team continues to use its experienced players as key role models and hope to continue its success that it has seen this season.
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