Bearden girls lacrosse program anxiously anticipates becoming TSSAA-sanctioned in 2024
Sophomore Ransley Greenoe will watch the girls lacrosse program evolve from a partnership with West to a full-fledged TSSAA Bearden sport in her time playing.
Bearden’s girls lacrosse players have had a slightly different label every year since 2021, but it’s the one they’ll receive in 2024 that they’ve most been looking forward to – TSSAA-sanctioned Bearden lacrosse.
Current seniors and juniors started off by playing as Knoxville-West in 2021.
“(Knoxville-West) was just kind of all the schools combined,” senior Adison May said. “Then last year, we were just Bearden-West.”
In 2023, the lacrosse team became a Bearden-specific sport, and a TSSAA Council voted to sanction lacrosse beginning in the 2024-25 school year.
The Bearden-West team from 2022 was sorry to part ways, but they were growing too big to stay together.
“We were sad when the league informed us that we would have to go our separate ways,” Coach Jeremy Dykes said. “Our hope is that in the next couple of years we can avoid turning people away by fielding both a complete JV team and varsity team.”
The Lady Bulldogs host CAK at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday on the football field.
The team had a great start to their season going undefeated up until losses to Seymour and Farragut last week.
“We still have a lot of important and tough games left to play, but we’re extremely proud of what the team has accomplished so far,” Coach Dykes said.
Added sophomore Ransley Greenoe: “We are a pretty strong team considering it’s our first year. I think that we have a lot of potential.”