Castle Park girls lacrosse program making most of second chance

The numbers might seem endless if you happen to be a member of the Castle Park High School girls lacrosse team … 14-0, 8-0, 12-0, 10-0, 12-0, 13-0, 15-0, 10-0, 15-0, 14-0. Those are the scores of the team’s opening 10 games — all lopsided losses.

But the Lady Trojans are far from being discouraged. In fact, their spirits remain high as the season winds down.

And there is much to celebrate at CPHS. The Lady Trojans scored their first goal of the season in last Friday’s 11-1 loss at Olympian. Castle Park lost 11-3 Monday to visiting Chula Vista.

“Four goals in two games!” first-year CPHS head coach Chris Kryjewski exuberantly told his team following Monday’s loss that dropped the team to 0-10 in league play, 0-12 overall. “There is growth in there. It’s exciting to score goals; it makes it more exciting in practice.”

Obviously, you’ve got to walk before you can run.

This is the school’s second attempt at fielding a girls lacrosse team. The 2014 squad finished 0-15 and was outscored 187-23. Last year’s team forfeited the season after playing one game.

Kryjewski started from the ground up after taking over the head coaching duties this season. The challenges were immense.

“We had to rebuild something was wasn’t built,” he said.

But you have to start somewhere, and that was a challenge Kryjewski was willing to take on.

“It was an opportunity to be a head coach; I had been at Castle Park so many years as an assistant coach,” Kryjewski explained. “It was a golden opportunity for me and to build a program.”

The first task facing the new coach was recruiting players. Kryjewski also had to learn the game.

“I went to P.E. classes and gave demos; I spoke to kids at assemblies,” Kryjewski explained.

It worked. Training camp started with 21 players.

Kryjewski and his staff have certainly laid a foundation. The Lady Trojans came off the field buzzing with excitement after Monday’s game against the Lady Spartans.

“Our goals for the season were just improvement and learning the game,” explained Sabrina Moreno, who scored two of Castle Park’s three goals in Monday’s contest.

Moreno is one of three team captains, joining Ashley Fernandez and Zahira Chayeb.

“It’s fun when you have a full team,” Fernandez noted.

“As everyone learns more, it’s more fun,” Chayeb added.

And the Lady Trojans have improved over the course of the season.

“I’ve seem amazing development from our first game when we had just over a week of practice,” Kryjewski said. “Although the scores might not show it, the field hockey IQ of our players has improved.”

The future looks promising. Of the 17 players still on the team, four are seniors and one is a junior.
“The rest are sophomores,” Kryjewski noted. “We’re developing. That’s the thing for us.”

Face-offs

Xochitl Castellanos led Chula Vista with five goals in Monday’s game as the Lady Spartans improved to 4-6 in league play, 7-9 overall.

In its 0-12 start, Castle Park has been outscored 145-3.

Otay Ranch defeated Eastlake, 10-9, in overtime on Monday to improve to 9-1 in league play.