This year there is an increasing hype over the new girls spring sport taking the school by storm: lacrosse. The sport is new to our school this year and despite the difficulties of starting a new sport, the players and coaches are excited to get started.

Being a new and rather obscure sport, it is new to many of the girls on the team who may not know the strategies, the fouls, or even the basic rules. Even Gabriella Bianchi, who has a background with the sport, is having to learn it all over again.

“My dad actually played collegiate so we would play together when I was eight or nine, but it’s been a really long time so it’s all new again,” Bianchi said. She credits this to the coaching.

“The coaching is awesome,” Bianchi said. “Menchaca coached football, so he brings a lot of skills with doing drills and making sure we’re on top of conditioning. Perkowski has taught lacrosse before, so his background is really good.”

Christopher Perkowski is a Government and Psychology teacher here at Central. He just started this year, but to him, taking on the the role as coach of the lacrosse team just made sense.

“I’ve always enjoyed lacrosse. I played as a kid and through school,” Coach Perkowski said. “I don’t think there was a lot of people in the building who had the experience.”

Starting up a new sport anywhere is no easy feat, but the coaches and girls are up to the challenge.

“The culture here is very easy to jump in,” Coach Perkowski said. “There’s a lot of school pride here, and there’s a lot of pride in the athletics.”

The school has definitely been supportive of the new team. After cuts, there are still 50 girls on the team.

“Its exciting, I think there’s a buzz already. I’ve got some girls that are very coachable and very eager to play and that usually translates into some success,” Coach Perkowski said. He and the team are looking forward to the season.

“We’re going to win some games, we’re going to lose some games,” Coach Perkowski said, “It’s when we get to the state tournament at the end of the year, where we’re at then. That’s all I care about.”

Bianchi on the other hand is more optimistic about the present.

“I think it’s going to go really well, our practices are really progressing, our skill level is really increasing, and I think that’s really good to see so early in the season,” Bianchi said.

The team plays their first game on the Thursday over spring break against Incarnate Word Academy. It’s nerve wrecking and exciting, but it’s tough to tell how it will go being the beginning of the season.

“I have no idea,” Coach Perkowski said, “The level of skill throughout the city varies quite a bit. It varies from school to school and grade level to grade level. You don’t make any assumptions.”