WILLIAM MUOIO
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
This spring season, a new club will be introduced in the High School. The girls lacrosse club has entered their first season as a club sport, and new student Caroline Kopfler (’15) is excited for the program to begin. “Moving to ASL, I wanted to play lacrosse,” she said. “I realized, however, that they did not have a varsity or club team but I still wanted to play.”
Kopfler has been playing competitive lacrosse since seventh grade, and played for both a club team and her school team before she moved to ASL.
The introduction of this new club was not an easy one, and Kopfler spent some time during the summer speaking with fellow teammate Megan Stracener (’15) about attempting to form a club team. Stracener, who moved from Virginia last summer, had previously played on her school’s JV and varsity teams. She knew that ASL did not have an actual varsity girls lacrosse team. “I was upset when I saw that there was no team for girls. I moved to London wanting to continue my passion towards lacrosse but saw that there was no team,” she said.
Stracener is unsure about the future of the club and how the season is going to unfold. She is confident that regardless of the outcome, the season will be a success because the formation in its entirety is a success. “The most important thing is to have a positive mindset about the club team. The goal is to form a varsity team and compete like every other sport, but we understand that it will not happen this season or next season,” she said.
Kopfler is also unsure about how the season will turn out regarding participants. “The majority of participants are sophomores. There are a few freshman and a few juniors, but there are a lot of sophomore girls who are interested in playing.”
After the first email was sent out on January 18, girls showed interest in playing this season. Michaela Etre sees this club team as a chance for girls to try something new. “Lacrosse is a sport where you can go out there, have some fun and make new friends,” she said. You do not have to have experience, and there is not such a high commitment in comparison to other sports at ASL.”
Practices are on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Primrose Hill, and will be on the same field as the varsity boys lacrosse team.
Lacrosse is a sport played by 12 players, and is similar to field hockey. Girls lacrosse is a sport known in and around London; however, it is usually played in the fall, making competition very minimal against other teams. “We hope to go to at least one tournament this season, but it is not the time of year to play lacrosse. We know that TASIS has a team but besides that, there may be one or two other games to play this year,” Kopfler said.
Athletic Director Sandy Lloyd also sees this as an issue in the formation of lacrosse as an actual varsity sport in the near future. “While boys lacrosse became a varsity sport last year, there were more teams that they could play against within the ISST community. This is not the case as of yet with girls,” Lloyd said.
Another main difference between the club and a varsity team is that the opportunity to play will be offered to girls from seventh to twelfth grade. While this may bring more participants and determine what the future of the program will be, it may become an issue if a varsity team is assembled only of High School students.
While the future of the girls lacrosse team is unknown, the passion that its creators have and their desire to continue to play their sport within the community cannot be overlooked.
