Piper Hernandez

With the ball in her possession, senior Brooker Kramer races against the opposing teams player to make it to the goal. Kramer plays high attack and the positions role is to score goals and set up the low attack to score. “I am really proud of our teamwork and overall attitude,” Kramer said. “For the most part we are all nice to each other and constructive about improving ourselves.”

In a clash of sticks in determination, these lacrosse players are almost unrecognizable as they are covered in red and white, with green nowhere to be seen on their jerseys. The boy’s lacrosse team is different from the rest of the sports the school offers because they have to set aside their differences and work together with another district school, Vista Ridge. 

The lacrosse season started with practices in January and games beginning in February. Home games for the boys team are held at Vista Ridge High School, and they are playing in the Class B division this year, moving up from the Class C division last year. The team has struggled with a few injuries during this start of the season.

“So far the season has gone pretty well, we have had a couple of ups and downs, but I think we’re on track to going pretty far now,” senior Royce Beaulieu said. “We lost our seniors, which was the majority of our team, so this is a rebuilding year. Other players are having to step up and it’s a ‘next man up’ mentality.”

While there are quite a few Cedar Park lacrosse athletes on the team, the sport is not considered a UIL team, so it is more of a club and they don’t hold practices during school hours. Additionally, the boys team plays with the Vista Ridge lacrosse team and wear their jersey. The girls team has players from eight other schools including Leander, Vista and Glenn. Senior Concetta Shackett is second-year player on the girls team.  

“I’m looking forward to us all working together as a team and having a successful senior year,” Shackett said. “My role this year as a senior is to lead by example and to show up and show out.”

The girls team this year bumped down to D-3 and has a lot of new players and incoming freshmen. The team had their first tournament on Feb. 10 and won their first game 15-9 and their second game 14-8. 

“We are a very beginner friendly team and when we were in D-2, we didn’t do super good, but now being in D-3, we have a lot of opportunity to be very successful,” junior Emma Peterson said. “I’m looking forward to winning. We’re definitely going to be winning a lot this year and I’m looking forward to going to play-offs. So far, it’s looking really promising and all of the girls are really locking in and grinding it out, and we’re improving at a tremendous rate.”

The boys had their first game on Feb. 3 against Smithson Valley and beat them with 15-2. Last year, the team lost in their state championship, but were ranked first in their division. Senior Nick Gaus said that their practices are intense and there is more competition and conditioning in practices compared to last year. 

“Hopefully we can go to state and actually win this year,” Gaus said. “Being a senior, I hope to help all of the underclassmen that are planning to play next year. Most of the seniors, especially the captains, try to teach the JV players because we know they’ll be playing on varsity next year.”

The boys team captains from Cedar Park are seniors Luke Barson and Sammy Attaguile. The team lost their defensive coordinator coach this season, but Attaguile says that the team has been trying to work around this and be more player-led this season. They have also incorporated strictly player meetings into their practices.

“We’re working on having the captions being more involved and having the players take on more of a leadership role,” Attaguile said. “I think the team meetings are good for keeping a positive attitude. Last year, there were a lot of emotions going around and no one was able to share them. The meetings are a good way to address things and make sure we’re being more clear with each other.”

The girls team captions are senior Brooke Kramer and junior Lola Walter. During practice, the team runs drills and their practice location varies as the team hosts so many different schools. Ballon says the captains roles are to keep the team focused in practice, be a role model to their teammates and keep the energy up in any situation. 

“Our practices have been really efficient recently, which makes me hopeful that we all will continue to improve as a team and individually,” Kramer said. “We really need to work on defense and communication, as well as cleaning up our fundamental skills.”

This is only the start of the season and both the boys and girls lacrosse teams will be playing throughout spring and until the end of April.

“I feel really good about this season because our team started to really come together and learn a lot of new plays that will help us succeed this season,” Walter said. “My favorite part about lacrosse is the energy needed to play. I am super loud on the field and I love when everyone else can match that because it makes the game so much more fun.”