By Stuart Jackson
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Looking at the Hounds lacrosse program, you will not find many differences from seasons past: a new head coach hired from last year’s staff and a new senior class.  However those are not the biggest of the few changes approaching the team this season. This season is the first time in the past four years the team will not be making cuts.

“So far it’s been an easy transition,” senior and midfielder Alex Eaton said. “Not having cuts will definitely have an impact on our team, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

According to Eaton, not as many players came out and participated in the program this season. While the team normally has had around 90 to 100 participants each of the past three seasons, this season only 70 players participated.

Varsity head coach Tom Coons doesn’t really see where the program will end up going this season with the numbers. “We have done both cuts and no-cuts in the past. I’m not sure where we will end up numbers-wise for each of our three teams (Varsity, JV Gold and JV Blue), but if we do not have to make cuts we won’t,” he said via e-mail.

Eaton sees both advantages and disadvantages with having no cuts. Eaton said, “Not having cuts is good for the program, but at the same time having cuts creates competition.”

Coons also sees positives and negatives coming out of a no-cut season. “The benefit of not having cuts is you run a larger program with every player having an opportunity to receive advanced coaching and instruction in a disciplined structure, thus allowing the opportunity for players to get better and possibly earn a discplined starting spot on one of our teams. The benefits of having cuts is raising the expectation that a player will get better in the off-season and preseason and we will only have the most skilled players in our program, as well as keep the rosters at a level where all  players have an opportunity to play in games regardless of the competitiveness of the game,” he said via e-mail.

Regardless of whether or not the team has cuts this season, the goals remain the same. “Our goal is definitely to win state this year,” Eaton said.

The Hounds Lacrosse program is already off to a great start on the season, defeating Chaminade (St.Louis, MO) on March 20. Chaminade was number-six in the Midwest lacrosse rankings.