Lacrosse By: Paxton Hilgendorff

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     A lot of aspects of life are very important to me, but one of the most important parts is lacrosse. I have been playing lacrosse since third grade and have loved it ever since. I started out playing midfield and taking the faceoff and it was so much fun. I actually liked the pressure of trying to be the first to get the ball.
     As I got older, I switched from midfield to attack. Playing attack is much more fun than midfield; you score a lot more goals and run a lot less. In fifth grade, I tried out for a club lacrosse team called Building Blocks Lacrosse (BBL). It was one of the best teams in New Jersey. I got on the team after working with the coach over the winter. The team was really good and we ended up winning a tournament at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. The tournament was really cool because it was just outside Hershey and we all went to the amusement park after the games. That was the first time I rode serious roller coasters. The next year I played for the same team again, but I was on the B team. Our team wasn't as good, but it was a lot more fun because I played more.
     After I stopped playing on BBL, I played for another team called Resolute Force. One of the cool parts of playing on club teams was playing with kids from other towns. It was cool seeing and playing against the kids I played with on BBL and Force when we were in our town seasons. I remember playing for Sparta and being on attack and hanging out on the field with my friend, Ryan, who was a defender for Randolph.
     Unfortunately, our town team has been getting worse and worse. When we were younger, we were more physical, but we didn't play proper lacrosse. Then our lacrosse skills got a little better, but we weren't as big or as physical as some teams. In sixth and seventh grade, we barely won any games. In eighth grade, a bunch of our players went to Pope John. We ended up only having three defenders so my coach asked me to play defense. I had to say yes because two of the defenders weren't very good. I started to learn the basics of defense and I was getting pretty good at it, but I wasn't enjoying it as much as attack.
     One good aspect of playing for Resolute Force in seventh and eighth grade was that I was allowed to play attack again which was fun. Our team wasn't great, but we enjoyed the game. I was always pretty good at lacrosse so it was fun for me.  I look forward to the spring season every year.
     Even though I love lacrosse, I never really followed pro lacrosse because it never got that big and still isn't very big. However, I have been to a box lacrosse game in Connecticut where the Black Wolves played, and a New York Lizards game at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, and both were really cool. It is beginning to become bigger with the creation of the Premier League Lacrosse (PLL), so maybe I'll get to go to another pro game one day.

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