Boys’ lacrosse at Park has had a drought of games for the last few years.

After having dwindling numbers for years, COVID-19 was the final push for the Park lacrosse team to phase out for good – leading to a merger with the Hopkins high school lacrosse team.

Sophomore Javier Schimming said he sees the merger as mainly a positive change and an opportunity for growth towards the future. Schimming said he feels welcome in the team, despite players coming from different schools or backgrounds.

“[Hopkins] has been super accommodating,” Schimming said. “The Hopkins players wait for around an hour after school so that [the Park players] can get to the field. We have plenty of time to get to the field and get ready, so it’s been really nice.”

Although Hopkins has been accommodating to the Park players, the issue of trust within the team still persists. Sophomore Carter Degan said his experience with Hopkins players made him feel less bonded to his peers than one would expect when playing on the same team.

“Us going to different schools kind of affects the flow of the game because people don’t trust each other as well,” Degan said. “I’d like to say that I’m trusted, but it’s not the same because [the Hopkins players] have been with each other in the same program for six or seven years, and separating us newcomers.”

According to Degan, the community within Hopkins felt less close as a whole because of this, but reiterates the main issue being the games themselves.

“[Lacrosse] is not as tight-knit of a community since it’s merged between SLP and Hopkins,” Degan said. “The hard part isn’t necessarily connecting with the Hopkins players, though, it’s more about the playability of the game.”

The Park and Hopkins players find ways to connect outside of the game, maintaining things like group texts to get closer as a community, according to Schimming.

“We connect with the Hopkins players in different ways,” Schimming said. “We have a team group chat and we have each other’s phone numbers so we can talk to each other.”

The team will be matched up against Breck at 5:30 p.m. May 27 at the Hopkins High School Stadium.