RowanHamm

Typically, school spirit is a central part of a successful sports team. Teams work together to bring home a title, but what happens when a team is actually composed of three different schools?

Such is the case for the Cardinals, a girls lacrosse team that consists of students from Marian, Duchesne and Brownell Talbot. The Cardinals play under the Duchesne name but represent all students regardless of where they go to school. 

Although the team is made up of students from a diverse range of schools, Duchesne senior Alyssa Moheiser, and Marian juniors Anna Cacioppo and Eleanor Thibodeau were all introduced to lacrosse through siblings. “What drew me to lacrosse was that it was nothing like I had ever seen before,” Moheiser said. 

The unique nature of the sport was what drew Cacioppo and Thibodeau to the sport as well. “It was something that was fairly new to people, so I was able to start and pick it up,” Thibodeau said.

The shared interest in the sport and the cross-school appeal blossomed into the creation of a combined lacrosse team under the Duchesne name. Cacioppo sees the diversity as being something that brings them together. Having many students who “have different [school] traditions” allows them to play better together “because we are working together to win.” The appreciation for diversity is held by many members of the team. “I love playing on a combined team…It’s fun to meet people we normally wouldn’t meet outside of our school. I feel like this dynamic supports our team chemistry,” Moheiser said. 

The growth of the collaborative team has been a point of pride for the players. At the beginning of the season, what started as a group of players from three separate schools, turns into one united team. “The changes have been visible and it’s amazing to see how far our team has come, and I think the thing that I love most about our team is that sometimes when we lose, we celebrate the small wins more than the team who wins celebrates their big win,” Moheiser said. 

The chemistry between the players supports an environment of love and collaboration. The team “gets more comfortable throughout the season, and it is just a good time playing with these girls,” Thibodeau said.

While all members of the team play with the Duchesne name on their jersey, “we are not playing for the school, but instead we are playing for the team. I play for the girls on the field with me,” Cacioppo said.

The members of the team see the combined aspect of it as a special part of their high school experience. For Moheiser, having a mixed team “is so important…schools work together and promote the community within the schools rather than be competitors. It’s nice to be able to play sports rather than playing against each other. We’re all on the same team standing for the same thing.”

The theme of connection and possibility resonated with other members of the team as well. “Lacrosse has made my high school experience more fun because I get to connect with other people from other schools. It broadened my horizons of what I can do in the future,” Cacioppo said.

Similarly, Thibodeau said, it “helped shape my high school experience because it made me go out and talk to new people, and I have now been able to use what I have learned from that in other ways.”

For this team, lacrosse is not just a sport, but an opportunity for new connections and community. With the rise of lacrosse’s popularity in Nebraska, this opportunity for growth both on and off the field is being extended to many more students.