On Saturday, Dec. 5 the boys’ varsity lacrosse team competed against four other schools in The Texas Lax Festival in Lockhart, Texas. They played a total of five games and only lost one game against the Eager Beavers, which put them in the championship game. It ended up being the Warriors versus the Eager Beavers again, and although the Warriors lost 9-5, it showed the athletes the areas they needed to improve in for the upcoming season.

“Our varsity team needs to work on team chemistry and trusting each other, because when we got to the championship game it seemed that our attackers couldn’t trust each other with the ball. It had seemed they had doubt in the team’s abilities, so I feel that that is something that we as a whole need to work on in practice,” Steven Szotsak ‘17 said. “Our motto this year isn’t ‘Trust your brothers and dominate the others’ for no reason.”

Three of Westwood’s players were injured going into the festival, including their goalie Grant Hovey ‘16, which hindered the team’s  performance. Jack Pitre ‘19 stepped up to act as a substitute varsity goalie..  

“For our upcoming season, originally we had easy games where we definitely could’ve dominated each game, but our coach didn’t want us to just breeze through our season. So he changed up all the games, so that as a team we would be challenged mentally and physically,” said Miles Simpkins ‘18.

The boys will go through a more rigorous practice routine for the upcoming spring season, adding more conditioning and stick techniques. They will also be encouraged to work outside of practice to physically prepare themselves, so when they meet the Eager Beavers again they’ll be able to trust each other.

The opening of the boys’ lacrosse Spring season is set to take place on Jan. 30.

Contributions by Marley Kotick