A Walpole player lines up a shot early in the first half.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Although his team dominated the young Stoughton Knights at the new South Walpole Community Athletic Complex (aka, the Route 1A fields), the head coach of the Walpole Youth Lacrosse team declined an interview when he was informed it was in large part going to be about COVID-19. While the COVID-related questions were going to be pretty soft - How did not having a league last year impact the player’s development? How many kids played club or summer lacrosse? Are there any rule changes akin to the “throw in” being eliminated for youth soccer? - perhaps he thought this was going to be a brutal expose on kids letting their masks slip below their noses while playing, or that I had intently watched to see if any players had high-fived each other in the era of elbow bumps, or that, for some reason, I was very interested in a Walpole Youth Lacrosse coach's thoughts on the pandemic in general.
Maybe, but the likeliest answer is probably the simplest one: as the COVID era comes to an end and people want to move on with their lives, people are just sick of talking about COVID.
Youth lacrosse is back in Walpole, as are Sunday afternoons of watching youth sports in town. Another ritual weekend ritual has returned.
If a return to normalcy is on the horizon, Saturday’s game certainly offered some glimpses. Most in the crowd on the new fields opted to go maskless, taking advantage of the new CDC guidelines about vaccinated people being outdoors. While it’s highly unlikely to have been an official part of the plans, the new fields are at enough of a bank that if you don’t like sitting in bleachers, you can either stand on the hill - or if you’re lucky enough, you can even get one of the parking spots that overlook the field and offer a view from the comfort of your car.
No matter where Stoughton's fans were watching the game, they weren’t going to be happy. Walpole dominated throughout, essentially scoring at will as the Stoughton goaltender consistently found himself facing breakaways or two-on-ones with very little chance of stopping the onslaught.
Walpole's goalie, meanwhile, did quite the opposite: in a unique twist, he continued to come flying up the field. It didn’t result in much, but it was very exciting every time he did it.
What may have made it slightly less exciting was that from a distance, it was extremely easy to forget which team was which.
Stoughton was wearing black and orange, while Walpole’s uniforms were orange - but many players' pads, cleats, compression sleeves or bandages were black, so in a cluster (like when multiple players were trying to scoop the ball off the ground), it was very difficult to figure out which team which player was on.
Well, until one of them scored. Then, if you played the odds, you could figure it was likely a kid from Walpole.
Regardless of the outcome or team colors, with kids back out on the fields and their parents watching intently, there was plenty for which to be grateful in Walpole this weekend.
