Hapnot’s varsity lacrosse team made their program debut last weekend, playing four games on Winnipeg-area fields against local schools.
The Kings played four games at Winnipeg’s Shaughnessy Park Field and didn’t get a whole lot of luck, losing all four in their first weekend of scheduled competition.
Hapnot’s first game April 27 came against the Portage Collegiate Trojans, ending with an 11-0 defeat. That set the tone for the rest of the weekend for the rookie squad - another loss later in the day, a 13-0 defeat to the J.H. Bruns Collegiate Broncos, followed by a 16-0 defeat to Murdoch Mackay the next day and another loss to Portage by a score of 7-0.
None of the Hapnot squad’s 15 players had ever played organized lacrosse before the weekend’s games, with few having ever even picked up a stick before the team was started earlier this year.
Hapnot is the only lacrosse team from northern Manitoba - and, along with Portage, the only teams outside Winnipeg - to take part in the Manitoba High School Field Lacrosse League (MHSFLL) this season. The league is broken up into three divisions and a six-a-side division for boys and specific division for girls, though girls do play occasionally on boys teams.
The layout of the league will mean Hapnot will have to travel to Winnipeg for all their games this season. The Kings will head down for another set of games later this month - two at Charleswood Broncos Field in Winnipeg against Sturgeon Heights and Miles MacDonell, then two more in Powerview-Pine Falls against Murdoch MacKay and Sturgeon Heights.
Hapnot currently sits tied for last place in the six-team Division III with Sturgeon Heights, who have not played yet this season.
