A Small but Dedicated Group
This year, the Las Lomas boy’s Lacrosse team only has a Varsity team. The JV team was taken away due to lack of incoming players, and replaced with a “Practice Team.” “Last year 18 of our players were seniors, we lost majority of the team and we did not have a lot of incoming players,” said sophomore Varsity player Marshall Hendricks.
There are currently no seniors on the Varsity team. The Varsity team is made up of mainly sophomores, along with a handful of juniors and freshmen. Brice Axe, a freshman on the Practice Team said, “During the drills, we usually go with Varsity and it’s good because we will get experience watching them. But usually during sixes, that’s usually what all the starters do, we just watch but that is good because we get to learn the plays by watching them do it.”
Team captains from Varsity come in to help coach the practice team and assign certain Varsity players to help different positions in the PracticeTeam. When asked about being on the Practice Team rather than the JV team, freshman Wyatt Weinker, another freshman on the Practice Team said, “It was a little disappointing at first, but after the practice team was incorporated into Varsity’s practice it felt a lot more norma snd a lot like the Practice Team was an actual part of the entire Varsity team, instead of something separate.” The Practice Team working with the Varsity team is a great way for them to watch how they function, play in an in-depth manner and understand more about the game so next year; all of which helps players make Varsity the following year.
The current model also helps the Practice Team become more familiar with the sport and learn how to act in in-game situations. The Varsity team appears to be very helpful and welcoming to the Practice Team, even though they are not playing for the school as a JV team.
