For most Montgomery County students, lacrosse is just as common as football or basketball, so it may come as a shock that Wilson High School just became the first D.C. public school ever to have a lacrosse team.

Mike Breslin, organizer of Break Out Lacrosse, a D.C.-based training company, was using Wilson as a practice ground for his middle and high school athletes, which brought Wilson students’ attention to the sport.

Wilson athletic director Mike Burnell recognized the potential and contacted Breslin about starting a team. He says that lacrosse is a large part of most D.C. area high schools, so he felt Wilson students would enjoy the opportunity to try something new.

“We found a great group of young men who now have the opportunity to play sports other than baseball or tennis, and get more involved in the D.C. metropolitan area sports circle,” he says. “A lot of kids at Wilson took interest and wondered why we didn’t have a team. One day I sat down with Breslin and asked him if he could work with us to create a possible lacrosse team for the spring of 2010 and right away we set up practices and found coaches.”

St. Albans graduates Lucious Polk (’03) and Harry Alford (’03) immediately responded to a bulletin Burnell posted asking for experienced lacrosse players to coach.

“When we heard they were in search, we knew we wanted to do it,” Alford says. “We played together in high school and separately in college, so with that experience we knew it would be a challenge but well worth it.”

Since Wilson boys lacrosse is not a DCPS sanctioned sport, Burnell had to look to other sources for funding outside of the county. He says they were able to spread the word about the team which prompted parents, booster club members, and support groups to help fund the new team. Through simply word of mouth, boys at Wilson took interest in trying out, and on March 22, 65 students showed up to try out for the first ever Wilson lacrosse team.

“We had to cut the team down to 30 due to lack of equipment,” Alford says. “It was hard to organize the team and get enough materials, especially since DCPS doesn’t recognize lacrosse as a county sport and therefore don’t fund it. However, we received lots of support from friends and family members, which was great to see.”

The team is composed of mainly Wilson students, with a few charter students from other local schools that don’t offer lacrosse.  Wilson’s schedule is against a series of private school JV teams that includes Georgetown Day, St. Albans, Sidwell and Maret. Because this is most of the players’ first times playing the sport, the team doesn’t expect a winning season. However, they maintain a positive attitude to keep the game fun.

“You and your coaches want to win these games, but other teams have the advantage of years of experience,” Wilson sophomore Will Kerwin says. “No matter what the score is though, we’ve really enjoyed playing this year. It’s really easy to enjoy the sport when your teammates are upbeat and happy to be playing.”

Although they lost all the games but one, Polk says that the single victory was enough of an accomplishment.

“On day one, none of them could throw or catch, but a month in they had their first win, beating Maret,” he says.  “That feeling was so gratifying for Harry and me as well as the players.”

Kerwin says this exciting experience has brought him closer to boys he would typically not know at school.

“Since Wilson is such a large school, people I had never seen before are now my good friends,” he says. “[Lacrosse] is really bringing the school closer together and generating more interest in the sport.”

Burnell says that he tried coordinating schedules with MCPS teams, but had too many conflicts.

“We tried playing Richard Montgomery, but it got cancelled due to weather,” Alford says. “We reached out to as many schools as possible, just to get exposure as well as experience. We’re hoping next year we can make our schedules earlier. Hopefully DCPS will one day have lacrosse as a sanctioned sport and there can be a league within the county.”

Burnell says he similarly had difficulty finding time to play Whitman.

“Next year we hope to play Whitman,” he says. “We know they’re a powerhouse in Montgomery County and look forward to the opportunity to learn from them.”

Whitman lacrosse player Ross Koehn says he is excited about the development of the sport in the D.C. area.

“It’s great to see more people take interest in lacrosse,” he says. “We always love having new competition and it would be great to play them.”

Both coaches recognize that students have other commitments, but hope that by sticking with lacrosse, the program can build.

“The hardest part is getting kids to show up,” Alford says. “These kids have so many distractions, but they’ve put in so much time and effort into making this season great. We hope to spread the word to more middle-schoolers so one day our program can be up there in the power rankings.”