At WS, lacrosse is one of the most well-known sports.

The team is preparing to fight for this year’s district title, but many players will participate for the first time in their lives wearing a Spartan uniform.

Despite being one of the best teams in the area, many WS lacrosse players have no prior experience. Some just show up at tryouts and are able to make the team.

“It’s a fun sport to play,” said junior Nick Becker, who picked up lacrosse for the first time last year as a sophomore on JV. “It seemed different [from all the others].”

Although lacrosse is similar to football in that many players can be on the team and see playing time, lacrosse does not offer a freshman team. This means that all freshman that wish to play have to tryout for the JV team. However, it isn’t that uncommon to see freshmen on JV or Varsity. For example, freshman Jake O’Connell made the JV lacrosse team this year.

“I like that there’s only JV and Varsity,” said O’Connell. “It gives you a chance to play with the older guys. If you only play with freshmen, you might be better than them but you won’t be better than any of the older guys.”

Many players in sports like basketball, football, and soccer talk about how they have played their sport since childhood. Although there are lacrosse leagues for younger kids, many choose to try playing for the first time in high school. The rich tradition of WS lacrosse helps attract new players to tryout for the team.

“I like the competitiveness of the sport,” said freshman Ben Armstrong, who is playing lacrosse for the first time this year. “And we’re one of the best teams in the nation.”

WS is indeed one of the elite teams in the nation. The team finished its season ranked thirteenth in the state and in the top three-hundred in the nation.

“I’ve played lacrosse before and I wanted to try to play in high school,” said O’Connell. “I knew we had a good team so I tried and I made it.”

Although “top three-hundred” may not sound that impressive, bear in mind that this is including every public and private school in the country that has a lacrosse team. This amounts to hundreds of teams in every state. This year’s team has similar expectations for success.

“It’s fast paced,” said Becker. “It’s like all the things I like about other sports put into one.”