Lacrosse continues to grow at Mona Shores HS
NORTON SHORES, Mich. — The Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsored its first tournaments in boys and girls lacrosse in 2005.聽 In Muskegon County, Reeths-Puffer was the first high school to put a varsity boys lacrosse team on the field in the spring of 2013.聽 For the next five years, young athletes from the Norton Shores area who wanted to play lacrosse did so through the Reeths-Puffer youth lacrosse program, Northside Lacrosse.聽 Many of them quit the sport, however, because they knew that they would not have a team to play for when they entered high school.
That all changed in the spring of 2018 when Mona Shores High School sponsored both boys and girls lacrosse teams.聽 These teams were cooperative programs with Fruitport, Muskegon Catholic, and Western Michigan Christian High Schools.聽 The girls program was the first to register a victory that season as they beat Vicksburg High School on March 23rd.聽 It would take the boys another year to get a win on May 7th, 2019 against Holland High School.聽 As we all know, the 2020 spring athletic season was cancelled due to COVID.聽 Fielding mostly inexperienced athletes, these early teams struggled to stay competitive against older athletes who had been playing the game since elementary school.
The program took a major step forward in the spring of 2021 when the boys team was only one loss away from a conference championship.聽 That next season, the boys would win the first conference championship in the history of the school in only its 5th year in existence.聽 That same season, that feat was punctuated by the first playoff win in the history of the school, a victory over Grand Haven played at Reeths-Puffer High School, the program where most of the team鈥檚 players got their start in lacrosse as 3rd and 4th graders.聽 With potentially 15 returning seniors on the 2023 team, expectations are high for another competitive season for the boys team this spring.
The girls team also got a big lift in 2021 as they dropped Muskegon Catholic from their cooperative and added the girls from Reeths-Puffer High School.聽 The additional athletes from this move allowed the girls to offer a junior varsity team for the first time as well as finish their varsity conference season with an even 4-4 record.聽 The girls are poised for a big spring in 2023 as they return a dozen seniors in addition to some talented younger returners from the previous season.
Commonly recognized as the 鈥渇astest growing sport in America,鈥� lacrosse is here to stay in Norton Shores.聽 Opportunities exist for boys and girls from all of the schools in the Norton Shores area.
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