Next school year, Mishawaka High School (MHS) will add lacrosse as a club sport. This is the first time that MHS will have a lacrosse team. The team will be coached by head coach Shawn Bolinger, a certified level two lacrosse coach. Lacrosse is a coed sport, and no players will be turned away. The lacrosse season starts in early March and continues through the third week of May. A parent-coach-player meeting will be held on Saturday, February 10th.
The lacrosse team will be a club sport. A club sport is a club where players are not recruited, but instead apply or ask to join. They are often responsible for financing their own organization. Where varsity sports focus on playing and representing their school. Club sports are more community based instead of having players from just one school.
This is not the first time students from MHS have been able to play lacrosse. “Our team started as the South Bend Spartans which was a team consisting of MHS, Bremen High School (BHS), and South Bend students. We believe that Mishawaka will be our new home due to the incredible supports and open arms we received from Jerome Calderone, the MHS principal,” Bolinger said.
The MHS lacrosse team will consist of boys and girls from MHS and BHS. There are currently five girls on the team. Lacrosse is a club sport so students will have to pay fees for their gear and uniforms along with referee and field paint fees. The team does have a limited number of gear that students can borrow from the club. If you are not sure if you want to play, “the MHS lacrosse team will be at the John Young Middle School (JYMS) large gym on every Saturday in February,” Bolinger explained.
“We aim to have seperate junior varsity and varsity teams in the future, but are unable to due to the amount of players we currently have. The team consists of twenty two players at the moment. Sixteen players are from MHS and the other eight are from BHS.”
Bolinger started playing lacrosse in the early 90’s when he was stationed in the United States Marine Corp in Cherry Point, North Carolina. He met a friend there who taught him, along with many others how to play the fast sport. “We played adult league games and college club teams who wanted extra scrimmages during their off season,” Bolinger said. He never thought of coaching until his older son and MHS 2017 graduate Kyle, wanted to play lacrosse in 2007.
Contact Shawn Bolinger for any further questions on the MHS/ BHS lacrosse team.
Shaw Bolinger: shawnbolinger@gmail.com