Starting off the 2025-2026 school year, girls lacrosse had six players returning, making it difficult to know if there would be a full roster this season. After many new players showed interest, they started practicing in October to teach new players and grow as a team.
With so many new people on the team, girls lacrosse is a great opportunity to build new relationships.
“I like meeting all the people, and I like just learning about the game and how to play,” junior Emily Noy said.
OPHS girls lacrosse is a well-oiled machine, and bonding is an essential part of that routine.
“We do sister gifts, and we often meet in our team room before games to plan out the game,” Pai said.
Junior midfielder Sophia Kieling is playing her third season at Oak Park High School.
“I’m really excited for the season, because we have a lot of new players, and I’m excited to see how we all work together on the fields, and get closer, and watch my teammates grow,” Kieling said.
It was a challenge going into the season because the team had eight seniors graduate last year, leaving not enough returning players for a full roster.
“We had a ton of seniors graduate last year, which was a lot of tearful goodbyes, so we definitely have had to start fresh with new players,” Pai said.
The roster is big enough to make a separate JV roster, but the coaches have decided to keep one varsity roster with some players occasionally participating in JV games.
“The coach is going to have some players play in the JV game after the varsity game, although there is not an official JV roster,” Noy said.
The team is led by head coach Ross Tabor and assistant coach Jeff Wong, who have eased the transitions for the new players.
“The coaches are very nice. They are super supportive and make lacrosse fun to learn since this is my first time playing,” Noy said.
The team practices four to five times a week. The practices consist of learning how lacrosse works and building basic skills.
“We practice later at the start of the year, 7-8:30, but it gets earlier and earlier as the soccer season ends, so right after school,” sophomore attack Arya Pai said. “We usually run about half the field in a lap, do some stretching, then we do line drills where we pass a ball back and forth just to get our stick skills better, and then we go into more specific drills.”
Come support girls lacrosse at their first home game on Feb. 18 against Dos Pueblos.
