This past Saturday saw some of the best played lacrosse all season as the Best Coast Bears Girls lacrosse team made it to the playoffs with a great coaching combo of Meredith Weber and Kyndall Hagens.  In the first game semi final round, the girls U15 team which is actually made up of girls in the 4th through 8th grade played the Lady O’s and started out strong driving the score up to 10 by early in the second half.  The Best Coast Bears offensive barrage was led by Julia Geer, Noelle Dahl, Gigi Dean, Katie Grothjan, Sydney Beale and Kaitlin Sung who combined with Claire Grimes and Kendall Fearnley put up 10 goals in quick succession.  But the Lady O’s were not finished and came back to within one goal of tying the Best Coast girls with minutes to play in the game.  Strong defense led by goalie Jesse Henigman, Bella Bartoli and secured the win by a score of 10 to 9 which allowed the Best Coast girls to push through to the championship game against Pioneer. Unfortunately for Best Coast, the Championship was not to be this season as they were defeated in a very hard fought game by a score of 12 to 7.  Offensive movement was key for the Bears as Anna Rolfes, Claire Falzon and Kylie Harchut all worked hard to pass and move the ball into a scoring position but the Pioneer goalie proved just too good.  Finally, if it wasn’t for the strong defensive play of Olivia Bartoli, Micah Hawkes, Madi Martin, Alison Cargile and Emma Henry the score would have been much worse.  When asked about their performance, Coach Weber stated that the Pioneer offense was just a bit more experienced than the Best Coast girls but that this year proved to everyone the Best Coast team can match their stick skills against anyone.  Said coach Hagens, just wait til next season.  Even with the loss in the championship game, the girls played great, improved dramatically and had loads of fun. Although they played great the final score ended up being 12-7 favoring Pioneer.  Second place feels pretty good when you realize how far the team has come in a very short amount of time.

Spring Sign Ups
Registration for the spring season is now open.  Please visit our website at www.bestcoastlax.com to sign up.  There is an orange “Button” on the home page and on the registration page that will take you to the Active site that handles the registration and payments for each season.

• Best Coast Lax will be entering teams in the U11, U13 and U15 Boys Divisions and a U15 Girls Team which includes girls from the 5th through 8th grades.
• Practices will begin the week of April 2 with 2 practices a week until games start and then one practice a week thereafter.
• Games will begin on April 14th and run for 6 weeks with one double-header per team.
• Cost will be $195 per player for returning players with uniforms and $250 per player for players that will need a new Best Coast Uniform.
• Some of the coaches will be new (most our winter coaches and both coaching directors will be busy with their high school teams from now through the first week in May), although both Meredith, Matt and Brian will be at games as their schedules allow. 

Please make sure you select the right age group and whether or not you need a new uniform. The league is going to a new method of determining the age breakdowns between teams and you will see U15 (which is for “under” 15 as determined by what age the player is on August 1, 2011), U13 and U11 going forward.

Please sign up as soon as possible so we can order uniforms in time for the season, secure the right number of fields and finalize how many teams and coaches we will need.  We expect that we will have very similar numbers as in the winter and need to manage team sizes.  We may have to put some people on a waiting list to ensure we manage playing time fairly, so first come, first served!

IMPORTANT:  Deadline for signups is March 7^th, 2012.

Discount Cards
We still have discount cards available.  Please take advantage of these as all funds received go towards the girls program.  Cards are only $10.00 each.  The cards have great discounts on restaurants and stores in Huntington Beach and with just one purchase you will make up the $10.00 cost in product discounts.  So please remember to support the girls and buy a discount card.  I have plenty left. 

Tee Shirts
The latest fashion craze to hit Huntington Beach since Birdwells has arrived.  Best Coast Lacrosse Tee Shirts.(see attachments)  These tee’s are available in all sizes and will also be on sale at the field tomorrow.  Like the discount cards, all proceeds go directly towards Best Coast Lacrosse. 

Sponsorships
Don’t forget to support McKenna Volkswagen.  Mr. Tam Nguyen with McKenna Volkswagen on Beach Boulevard generously donated $2,500 specifically to the Best Coast Girls Lacrosse program.  His generosity is awesome and greatly appreciated.  We will keep you posted as to how the donation is used going forward.  Please remember to consider McKenna Volkswagen for your next car regardless of make. 

Please support your team and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday!