Boys Varsity Lacrosse Team

Maggie Rivas

For as long as most Whitney Young students can remember, football and basketball have been the powerhouse sports that dominate Whitney Young athletics. Despite this fact, boys varsity lacrosse has managed to take Whitney Young by storm. The turning point for boys lax came earlier this year when they won city champs for the fifth year in a row. Ryan Rosen ‘17 is a member of the boys varsity lacrosse team and he explains how much winning city meant to him in this quote: “The whole lacrosse season is leading up to that game against Lane Tech, at least it is for me. Every practice and every game is an opportunity to practice how we are going to defeat Lane Tech. I’d say kill but that sounds a little harsh. But now that we’ve already beat them I think it’s safe to say we killed them. After all, we won like 16 to 5.” That just goes to show that Whitney Young truly has Lane Tech beat in all areas…from ACT scores to sports.
Not only have the boys had an exceptional winning streak this year, they also have managed to accumulate one of the biggest fan bases around. A large part of this fan base can be attributed to the super supportive girlfriends some of the players have. Cate D ‘18 says, “I have yet to miss a game but it’d probably be fine if I did because Owen does the same thing every game… He scores at least four times…But more often than not, it’s like six times.” Cate’s support goes to show that the boys lacrosse team loves their fans and thrives off their cheers but they also don’t need them to have an amazing game.
This past Saturday the boys temporarily lost a lot of their fan base since the game against Mount Carmel was so far out. Nonetheless, they still clearly came to play. They came back to beat Mount Carmel High School 9 to 8 after being down 2 to 8 in the first half. As mentioned previously, the boys have already won the city championship earlier this year against Lane Tech so their next feat to conquer is a game on Tuesday, May 30th, against Bartlett High School. If they win this game, which Whitney Young students are confident they will, they play again on Thursday, June 1st, against a team that is yet to be determined to see who will be going downstate to fight for the big title. If the boys keep up the good work and keep up the daily practices, they will be playing for state champs the morning of June 3rd. What could be a nicer way to end senior year for our varsity lacrosse boys than having prom, a state title and graduation all in the span of two weeks?


Photos courtesy of Cate D ’18