February 22 was the first day of tryouts for all spring sports at Oakton High School. Both boys and girls lacrosse, soccer, track, and tennis tryouts all begin with most first cuts coming on Wednesday and final team rosters beginning released on Friday.

Oakton has an extremely large freshman class this year which has both its pros and cons. The large upcoming class means that new talents across all sports will come in a boost the already talented and promising teams. One problem with such a large class is an increased number of cuts. With an increased number of kids and cuts comes the issue of overlooked talents and players feeling as if their chances at game time are less than they believe they should get. Hundreds of student athletes will also have to deal with crowded fields and late practice times throughout the season.

Six teams will have to balance practice times with each other on just the three turf fields. The later  school times will also push back practice times later into the night and darkness and sending athletes home later. Teams will also have to deal with equipment issues due to increased team sizes. Many sports will be pressed for amounts of jerseys, helmets, and other essential equipment. Many groups of athletes also will be spending excess amounts of time at Oakton High School. Boys lacrosse practices do not begin until 5:30 and finish at 7:30 which means students will be spending close to 12 hours on the Oakton’s campus.

This years spring sports season looks to be an extremely promising one for all teams at Oakton but it will be interesting to see how each group can overcome the obstacles of practice times and limited field time.