The NDA lacrosse team is getting ready for another season of running, hitting and hopefully scoring.

The team ended their year last year short of the state title game, which last year starter Grant Shilbauer says was short of their team’s potential.

“We lost too early, I felt. We did not reach our full potential last season,” ShilbauerR explained.

This year’s team is basically starting over. The team lost seven of the ten starters from last season. Two big losses include Morgan Carlson and Quinn Snyder, the team’s highest scorer.

The team does have returning goalie Brady Kurowski and returning field player Shilbauer. Some members believe that those two should be the captains of the lax team.

“The captains should probably be Grant and Brady. If there is a third, it is up for grabs,” Cole Whatley explained.

Because the team is starting over, the seniors are saying that freshmen should definitely consider lacrosse as their spring sport.

“It has a fun atmosphere and you can get really good if you play all four years because lax is so easy to pick up,” Whatley stated.

Senior Andrew Gruesen started lacrosse last year and is still trying to learn some of the quirky little rules.

“One of my goals for this year is to learn all of the little penalties because last year I got a few for penalties that I didn’t even know existed,” Gruesen said. But besides the little penalties lacrosse is still very fun and very easy to catch onto.

The team has two state titles under its belt. For this year’s team to win another state title the team must stay focused, according to both Shilbauer and Whatley.

“We need to stay focused and people will have to put real work into the practices,” stated Shilbauer.  

The team does have some confusion going on as the status of the head coach is unknown. Some players believe that coach Littlewind Silas will be coming back, and others think he has been let go. This confusion might affect the team in negative ways.

Lacrosse is not an official sport of the WIAA and some lacrosse players receive some grief for it because they do not “technically” play a sport in the spring.

“It doesn’t bother me because the only reason the WIAA does not include us is because not enough schools play the sport,” explained Whatley.

Is this the year the team makes a state run or will it be a year of development for younger players? Only time–and the team–will tell.