Lacrosse left with no championship

Junior+April+Serrano+avoids+her+defender+while+catching+the+ball+during+tryouts.+

Irene Feher

Junior April Serrano avoids her defender while catching the ball during tryouts.

Irene Feher

Due to Huntington Park High School dropping out of playoffs, CIF girls lacrosse championship playoffs are cancelled for next spring season, causing disappointment and frustration to the team.

Junior April Serrano avoids her defender while catching the ball during tryouts.
Irene Feher
Junior April Serrano avoids her defender while catching the ball during tryouts.

“It’s kind of sad because I know we could have a chance of winning championships for the third year in a row,” junior varsity captain Andrea Escamilla said. “It’s so unfortunate one school ruined our chance.”

According to California Interscholastic Federation rules, six high school lacrosse teams are required to have playoffs. Since Huntington Park High School dropped out, the requirements are not met to have playoffs in the next spring season. It’s rumoured that Huntington Park doesn’t have a coach anymore.

“For CIF rules, you need six teams and one of them dropped out,” attack varsity April Serrano said. “Without them, we have five teams in playoffs and it’s not enough.”

The Birmingham Community Charter High School varsity lacrosse team have been practicing since the summer for their season in spring 2016. They’ve been conditioning intensely and have been working on their stick skills to get better. The team was very hopeful to win championship playoffs for the third year consecutively. They’ve defeated Palisades Charter High School in the 2014 and 2015 CIF Championships. When they heard that playoffs most likely will not happen, they were very disappointed and frustrated.

I was very upset and I looked forward to it because we are a great team.

— Junior April Serrano

“We expected to dominate this year and we are so close to get results,” Serrano said. “I was very upset and I looked forward to it because we are a great team. There wasn’t really a point anymore to work up to the goal of winning championships as we were hoping for.”

Even though they may not have playoffs to dominate, the lacrosse team is still working very hard to keep their momentum.

“This year, we are mainly working harder, even though we won championships,” Escamilla said. “We are working as hard, or even harder, as we worked to keep up our winning team.”