Last year, the LBHS athletic department introduced a new turf field and electronic scoreboard to our campus. Continuing this string of additions, new things will be coming in the 2017-18 school year, including an outdoor weight room. The current weight room, although well equipped and top of the line, has had many issues regarding overlap in scheduling and overcrowding in the past few years. Sometimes the weight room hosts up to three teams at once. This congestion can force coaches to adjust their practice plans and more often than not, negatively affect practices. Many student athletes are excited about the prospect of a new outdoor weight room so that their teams can have more opportunities to lift during off seasons.

“I’m stoked because this will allow athletes more room to work out and there will hopefully no longer be more than one team in the weight room at one time,” said junior water polo player and swimmer Riley Bumgardner.

The weight room will include eight racks, eight sets of olympic weights and all new machines.

“I am really excited to see the new weight room. A lot of the bars and machines we use now are old and rusted, and I am looking forward to getting the new equipment,” said junior football player Zach Fields.

It will be located in the walkway in between the North Gym and Dugger Gym. This lifting area will not be gated off, and the weights will be stored when not in use. This weight room was approved by SchoolPower and will be completed by the end of May.

Other upcoming additions to our athletic department may include both wrestling and lacrosse teams. A number of students have shown interest in both sports, and these teams will hopefully be put into place next year.

“I am so excited to hear that Laguna is creating a lacrosse program! I played offensively in the position ‘attack’ on lacrosse for three years on various teams, as well as at my old high school. It was an amazing experience, and I fell in love with the sport and everything about it. Lacrosse is very fun to watch and even better to participate in, so I believe it will gain a lot of school spirit and be a great addition to the sports teams LBHS already has. I strongly encourage anyone interested in lacrosse to join the team, because most people who start to play love the sport and even the training and learning process. I am planning on doing both cheer and girls lacrosse next year, and am looking forward to it!” said Hannah Hobrecht.

If it is to become a sport at LBHS, lacrosse may temporarily compete off campus because our current field lacks the proper lines for an official lacrosse game.

All other schools in our current league currently offer wrestling, so we would be able compete against them next year in the event that we added this sport to the Breakers’ athletic program.

“I have always wanted to try wrestling and now through the school I will be able to experience this new sport,” said junior swimmer Jared Firebaugh.

Wrestling would be a winter sport and lacrosse would be offered in the spring.

If approved, lacrosse will be offered to both boys and girls. The teams in our current league do not have lacrosse teams, so any games next year would have to be non league. However, in 2019 LBHS would move into a new league with Irvine teams, which all have lacrosse teams.

Both sports are awaiting the approval of the school board but will hopefully be approved and set into motion by the end of the school year.

“I hope these improvements will give athletes here at LBHS more opportunity to excel in a wider variety of sports,” said Athletic Director Lance Neal.Reno Sammons