When people at Cotter think of spring sports, the first things that come to mind are baseball, track, softball, or tennis.  Jakc Kauphusman is trying to change that.

Two years ago Kauphusman, without the help of a coach, started a lacrosse club made up of students from both Winona High and Cotter.  The team is made up of 11 players.

The idea for the club came from an old memory and a chance experience at hockey practice.

“One day during hockey practice, one of my coaches, who was in college, brought all his lacrosse stuff, and it made me remember when I used to play lacrosse in a camp in sixth grade. After that I decided we should make a team, since I didn’t like any of the spring sports. I asked a ton of kids I new to see if they wanted to play, and had them write their name down on a piece of paper. After that I showed it to Mrs. Carpenter and she showed us a plan how to get started, and gave us field space to play on,”  said Kauphusman.

After some preparation, and getting some gear from St. Stan’s, the lacrosse club was formed.

Now, two years in, the team three coaches, Jack Kietley, Logan Frost, and Lee Trombeta, and practice regularly at the high school fields.  This club has definitely come a long way from it’s humble beginnings.

“At first, the lacrosse club was just a joke, to go out and fool around during our so called practices, but now that we are official, the school is starting to take us more seriously, and hopefully our fan base grows from that,” Kauphusman stated.

With the growth of this sport, the lacrosse team does have some team goals for their third season in action. They hope to dominate their conference, while preparing to compete versus Big 9 schools. They also want to attract more students to play next year.

Their final goal, as Kauphusman stated, is to, “ have the city start to love lacrosse as my intention was two years ago.”

The lacrosse team played the Mankato Outlaws on Sunday, April 13th, at 1:00 p.m in their first official game. They demolished Mankato, winning 11-0.

Alex Rickoff, Jack Kauphusman, and Max Johnson each scored two goals. Marcus Kuhlmann, Caleb Hammel, Logan Hein, Cassidy Cyert, and Matt Schoh all added a single goal.

 Kuhlmann, a junior,  said, “We played as a team, no one was selfish and the score reflected that, we had eight different guys that had goals.”

The Lacrosse teams next game is at Paul Giel field Friday, April 25, at 6:00. They will be playing last year’s champions Hudson.

The   Outlaws see the keys to success as  working hard in practice on their offensive zone time, produce scoring chances, and limiting  fundamental mistakes.

 “If we play as a team and have good ball movement and dodges that can get us to the crease, we should end the game victorious,” said Kuhlmann.