Hawthorne High School will be instituting a new lacrosse program open to all underclassmen boys and possibly a few seniors for the spring 2013 sports season.
According to HHS principal Barry Cohen, the Hawthorne Board of Education proposed starting a lacrosse program this year in response to the number of middle school students who decided not to attend Hawthorne High School because it lacked the sport. “We listened to the community and to our middle school parents who said that one of the main reasons they weren’t sending their son to Hawthorne High School was because we didn’t have a lacrosse program,” said Cohen.
Athletic Director, Art Mazzacca informed The Clarion that the new lacrosse team, which will start playing games this spring, will be playing a junior varsity schedule and, as of right now, will be open to underclassmen only.
Even though more than 20 students have demonstrated interest in playing lacrosse this year for Hawthorne, it is expected that even more students will be involved. “We will advertise. We’ll have meetings. We’ll talk it up during homerooms, and we’ll try our best to recruit those students who are not participating in other sports,” said Cohen. If numbers for the new sport still aren’t high enough, the school would most likely institute a non-cut policy so students who “don’t want to come out because they are afraid of being cut, will come out.”
One concern that has been voiced by the school community is how the new lacrosse program will have an effect on other spring sports. “Of course you may lose a few students to lacrosse; however, lacrosse is a completely different type of sport, and I really don’t see it having a major impact on our other programs – at least for the first few years,” shared Cohen.
Another concern for many potential players, students, and parents is how the team will be able to compete with other teams with years of experience, even at a junior varsity level. In order to address this issue, Mazzacca stated that he’s “trying to schedule games against [other lacrosse] teams that are newer, whether they started this year, like Eastern Christian, or started last year, like Westwood and Union City. So we are trying to get teams that are on our same level right now as far as experience goes.”
As of right now, Mazzacca said that for the spring of 2013, the HHS lacrosse team would be playing at least eight teams, some of them twice. There are five scheduled home games and three scheduled away games. The home games will be played on the football field.
As for the future of the lacrosse team, Mazzacca wishes “it gets off the ground and it’s a big success. I know that a lot of people in town are talking about it, and it seems to be growing in excitement. Hopefully, we can bring in a coach that’s going to bring a lot of excitement to the table… This year we’re looking to become varsity. We’re not looking for wins and losses necessarily. We’re looking to build for the future.”