Following the start of the season, the boys lacrosse team will no longer have a junior varsity program for the 2018 year. The remaining players who would have been chosen for junior varsity will be pulled up and get the opportunity to play at the next level. The transition to this is stressful for the coaching staff because they don’t have the numbers to improve the ninth and tenth graders to their full potential just yet.

“Even if you had the skill level to play, it’s a little like politics,” Reiger said. “Most of the seniors end up playing because its their last year.”

Yet, exposing the underclassmen to this varsity play ahead of time allows them to see and learn what it takes to compete in that high level of intensity and competition. It also shows them what it is like to have to ride the bench, losing the chance to play, which they would’ve had on the junior varsity team.

“Its worse for the underclassmen because they’re not going to get a lot of playing time,” said Reiger.

Those former junior varsity players sat and saw the tough loss against Holland Christian, which brought the team to a low-point in morale, one of the lowest in the young season, which the Bucs hope to make up in the coming weeks.

“The other team’s goalie was playing out of his mind.” Reiger said. “We all like eachother, but after a loss, you see all the junior varsity kids goofing around which ticks off the people who play.”

However, these new varsity call-ups will not receive as much playing time as the starters due to the momentum of the competition. With the other teams projected to be very good in their own right, it will be a challenging season for the Bucs.

“Overall, we all get behind each other,” said Reiger. “Everybody just hypes up everybody. We just get ready for our games.”

Recently moving down from tier one to two, the Bucs are projected to be a competitive force to be reckoned with. The need to prove their spot will be detrimental to their intimidation factor in the end of the season playoffs.

“It’s been easier,” Reiger said. “Playing teams like Rockford who are really good is hard. I thought it was a good move.”