Girls’ lacrosse jumps into spring season
While waving their lacrosse sticks, NPHS girls’ lacrosse teams head right into their new season on Feb. 23 at an away game at Oak Park High School. Now that the practices are back to normal after the pandemic, the team has formed one close-knit group.
Daniella Guyette, senior, is a goalie for the varsity lacrosse team and is also one of their captains. “I’m feeling really excited for [this season]. We’ve trained especially hard over this pre-season and a lot of the younger players have been developing their skills which overall raises our strength in the team and further prepares us for any challenges we may face,” Guyette said.
Not only are the seniors excited for the upcoming season, but there is also a lot of excitement towards welcoming younger members to the team. Sophia Laubner, senior on the varsity team, remembers being very intimidated as a freshman. “Now that I’m a senior, I’m looking at the entire experience differently. I’m just really thankful for the team and Coach Yarger for changing the culture and welcoming a lot more players that maybe wouldn’t have come out,” Laubner said.
The only freshman on the varsity team, Beatrice Macdonald, feels right at home with the team. “I’m just ready to play and I’m excited because I love lacrosse,” Macdonald said. “I don’t really feel like I’m the only freshman because I’ve played club with these girls too so I feel like I fit in.”
This season the teams attempted a new method of practicing. “We had newer players practicing with a coach named Tony [Estrada] and then the more experienced players practice with the head coach, Michelle Yarger, and I think that worked really well,” Laubner said. “And now that we’re in the real season and we’re all practicing together, we’re gelling a lot more because the newer players feel more confident since they were able to practice with the same type of skill.”
A lot of the players have high expectations for the coming season and hope to beat prior years’ accomplishments. “I think the season overall will go pretty well. I’m hoping that we’ll definitely make it outside of the Marmonte league, hopefully winning that,” Guyette said. “I’m hoping that we’ll make another run for the CIF championships, though I think this time around will be a lot harder where our competition has gotten a lot better and I hope that our hard work and practice throughout the pre-season has payed off and that we’ll be able to make it as far as we did last year.”
