Girls from Highlands Ranch, ThunderRidge, Rock Canyon, and Mountain Vista all come together to form varsity and junior varsity lacrosse teams. Since there aren’t enough girls from each school to have their own teams, they all have to come together from the four different schools to create two teams. Instead of these high schools being rivals like they usually are, they are working together and learning how to be a team.

   The girls lacrosse team is fairly new to our district, it started only 3 years ago.  Many people are fighting to keep it going and to get more girls to join. “I think we really need to keep girls lacrosse because it’s different from the regular sports like volleyball and basketball. It’s the perfect way to start off fresh, meet new people, try something new, and maybe even find it as a new hobby or passion,” Natalie Alvarado, junior varsity said.

   The students aren’t the only ones excited for the new season. “I am always excited to coach a new group of girls! It’s so fun getting new talent and molding it with our existing talent. We went farther into the playoffs last year than the program has
done before, so I am excited to see what this new team is capable of,” Kelsi Goings, head coach said.

  The varsity team coached by Goings is housed at ThunderRidge and the junior varsity team is housed at Rock Canyon. “I’m happy that I made varsity and excited to just be on a team with people who share a similar interest as me; it’s a great way to make friends,” Sophie Helmer, freshman said.

   Since most girls won’t know each other they will
have to get to know one another in their teams. “You won’t know how to communicate well with each other or play as a team if you don’t know all of your team members well enough,” Alvarado said. All of the girls on each team will have to work hard to achieve this.

   “Building a strong team is about trust and without knowing your team and them knowing you, it is very difficult,” Goings said. The coaches and students stretch the idea of having trust in and knowing your team members because it will “help us cooperate and play better. We will have a better season and win more if we can do this”, Helmer said.

   The varsity team won their first game of the season 17-7 and the junior varsity won their first game 15-2. “Both of these games were great starts to our season and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for us,” Alvarado said with a smile on her face.

Sam Searcy, Guest Reporter