The heavy lacrosse balls fill up buckets beside the abundance of sticks and mouthguards as the Brookfield Girls Lacrosse team prepares for the season on Tuesdays. These preseason practices are held in the Brookfield Indoor Soccer Complex and unite both the East and Central girls into one team known as the “Brookfield Team”. The girls focus on skills such as cradling their sticks and long passes, as well as defensive and offensive skills.

Last season was filled with many successes for the varsity team. They won games against some of the fiercest lacrosse teams in the area, including Kettle Moraine High School, with an impressive score of 11-7 in the second round of playoffs. Surprisingly, their most outstanding accomplishment of all was their loss to Hartland Arrowhead High School two days after playoffs.

Varsity coach Brian Schmit described the team’s performance in that game, “We played our hearts out, keeping the score close with the state champs for much of the game. It was a year with remarkable improvements in our play as the season progressed.” Furthermore, Coach Schmit concluded by describing the Brookfield Girls’ Lacrosse experience last year, “2018 Brookfield girls lacrosse was a team in every sense of the word. They played like a team both on and off the field, and had a blast along the way.”

After the sad departure of the seniors last season, this year’s varsity team is now led by returning juniors Bella Post, Julia Fernandez, Ellie Barker, Megan Brown, and Ellie Fuchs. As a lead defender, Julia Fernandez felt very welcomed into the varsity team and saw an opportunity for her to enhance her skills through the intense varsity endurance training and scrimmages. She summed her lacrosse experience so far, “Last year was my first year playing varsity lacrosse and it was such a fantastic experience. It was such a welcoming group of girls who wanted to win just as much as I did. One of my favorite memories was beating Kenosha. Everyone seemed to be on their A-game and as a whole team, we played really well.”

Tryouts are scheduled on March 4 at BISC. Not only is lacrosse becoming a booming sport in the Wisconsin area, but it is also a no-cut sport. This allows any interested players with any level of expertise to join the fun and add their own touch of uniqueness to the “GLAX experience”.