White River Junction
That will change this spring as Hartford’s boys and girls lacrosse will, for the first time, move their regular-season home games to the high school campus.
The Hurricanes’ boys lacrosse team has played its home games at the Ottauquechee School since the late 1990s, according to Hartford athletic director Jeff Moreno. Wheatley said the school’s girls lacrosse team has played at Dothan Brook School since 2011 and at the Ottauquechee School before that.
Hartford boys lacrosse played two night games on the school’s football field last season and the girls lacrosse team played one, which Wheatley said opened the door.
“Moving to campus, we should be able to draw a lot more crowds doing that,” said Wheatley, who is entering her third year with the Hurricanes. “If we’re right on campus, it will make a huge difference in how many kids show up. … If the kids go, with our youth programs still growing, we can get more exposure (from the student body).
“I’m so excited,” she added. “And I know the other coaches are, too.”
Home games will be played on Hartford’s football field, and the adjacent field hockey field and will be used for practices and junior varsity games through the season.
Wheatley said she’s expecting to have enough athletes to form a junior varsity team this season and said she hopes playing games on campus will help swell her team’s numbers down the road.
Moreno said the move was a no-brainer.
“There are no concessions, no locker room facilities, they’re not easy to get to,” he said of the programs’ past homes. “We have beautiful new facilities, with a weight room and concession booths, and having our students walk to practice or walk to games made it an easy decision.”
Hartford’s athletic department has been able to consolidate its athletic activities with the completion of the Maxfield Sports Complex with baseball, softball and girls and boys soccer all calling Maxfield home. Original plans had the boys and girls lacrosse teams relocating to Maxfield, but parking and scheduling concerns made Hartford High a more appealing option.
Spreading Hartford’s athletic facilities over two locations — Maxfield and the school’s campus — makes logistical sense for transportation purposes and for the school’s two athletic trainers, who now can divide their time evenly, Moreno said.
The decision to move ahead was made several weeks ago in a meeting that included Moreno, Wheatley, boys lacrosse coach Bill Elberty and outdoor track coach Mike Perry, all of whom will share Hartford’s on-school facilities.
The biggest concern has been with maintenance questions due to an increased usage of Hartford’s two lacrosse-sized fields, which could be muddy and wet due to melting snow. Moreno said he’s in the process of putting together a maintenance plan to keep the school’s fields in shape for the spring season, a process that may include laying down new grass.
Moreno also said he’s hopeful that bringing lacrosse to the school and increasing the usage of Hartford’s on-school fields will make upkeep of the fields a higher priority and perhaps draw more people to campus.
“It wasn’t necessarily broken, but I think this makes a lot more sense,” he said. “I think the booster club has a real opportunity to do well here.”
Cancer Awareness Fundraiser at SoRo: The South Royalton School will host its annual Hoops for Hope fundraiser for cancer awareness on Saturday, beginning with recreation basketball at 8 a.m. The fundraiser runs all day up to the Royals’ boys varsity basketball game against Whitcomb at 5:30 p.m., and will include varsity bowling at Lyndon-Gold Crown Lanes in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and the South Royalton girls basketball game against Cabot at 4 p.m. All proceeds will be donated to the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Lebanon.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.