Outgoing seventh and eighth graders from Mercer Island’s select “Black Team,” coached by Rob Shields, recently returned from a lacrosse tournament in New Jersey, where they reached the championship finals.

Competing against combined seventh/eighth-grade teams from New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Long Island, the Black Team was victorious in its first four games (11-1, 7-1, 7-4 and 4-1). The Mercer Island boys lost the championship game against a team from Philadelphia, with a score of 5-6.

As team parent and Mercer Island Lacrosse Club board member Edith Rothenberg reported, “The boys played a heroic game against a team that lived two hours away, drew from six different districts and had experience playing in the heat.”