Calvin Crawford, Grey Denes, and Andrew Weber are all sophomores at Mount Vernon High School and play for Kingfisher Lacrosse. The team they play for is not run by the school but made up of kids from all different schools. They have spring, summer, and fall seasons for lacrosse. The practices for their season start as early as February. During these practices, they are inside at the CRSA Indoor Facility mainly since it’s too cold outside during this time.
Lacrosse is a fast paced contact sport with four quarters and 15 minutes per quarter. But in the large-scale tournaments, they do two halves that are 30 minutes long. Athletes will face off at the start of every play. Whoever wins the face off by getting the ball will pass to teammates and try to score on the opposing team’s net. They use sticks with nets to carry, pass, and shoot the ball. There is a goalie on each team who tries to defend and stop the ball from going into the goal. Whichever team scores more after the end of the quarters or halves wins.
Calvin Crawford a sophomore from Mount Vernon and is an attacker on Kingfisher Lacrosse and has been playing for six seasons in total, and was there when the team won the State Championship two years in a row. “I like the fall season the most because there are fewer practices and it’s not as hot out,” said Crawford, “It also feels more like a travel sport.” A lot of the tournaments they play during the fall season are away, some as far as Kansas City and Wisconsin. “My favorite memory was when I scored a behind the back goal in State,” said Crawford.
Andrew Weber a sophomore from Mount Vernons and is a goalie for Kingfisher lacrosse who’s currently in his fall season. Weber has been playing for five and a half years. “My favorite memory was when we won state for the first time since it was a big moment,” said Weber. “We went from losing all our games to winning it all.” His favorite season is the spring because more people play during this time and there are full practices. During the spring, they practice twice a week, but he and others want it to be three or four times. They practice indoors mainly during the spring season, but towards the end they are able to start getting outside practices in. “It’s very important to bond as a team, especially since we are all from different schools,” said Weber. “During the tournaments, we go out to eat, go to stores, and hang out all together as a team.” This helps the team composed of kids from many different schools all come together and create a very close bond in and out of the game.
Grey Denes is a sophomore from Mount Vernon and plays defense on Kingfishers’ team. He is currently in his fall season. Denes has been playing lacrosse since he was 11 years old. Denes was part of the first few kids from Mount Vernon to join this team, and he inspired many of his friends to come and try out the sport. “My favorite memory was when in the first game of the year we lost 15-0,” said Denes,.“ And then beat that same team twice in the State Tournament and won it.”
Denes also believes that it’s very important as a team to know what everyone is good at. “An important role in a team having good chemistry is to know who is good at what things on the field,” said Denes. Their team gets good at this by practicing game situations with scrimmages. These Scrimmages are just a shortened version of a full game only lasting about 30 minutes in total, but it gives the athlete good opportunities to shoot and defend like it’s a real game.
The Kingfisher Lacrosse team’s future is looking promising. With the fall season coming to the end, their team had a record of 7-1, and are excited for the spring season practices to start again.
