On Friday 23 August Carmel School had the privilege of welcoming the U20 Israel National Lacrosse Team to Carmel School. They taught us the game of lacrosse and spoke to us about their experiences playing in the national team. The team visited Hong Kong as they were participating in this year’s Women’s U20 Lacrosse Championship. In the championship, 20 teams from all around the world qualified to participate in this annual tournament. Out of the 20 teams, Israel managed to secure the 13th spot, leveling up their power ranking to the top 10 in Europe!

On their visit to our school, we first went to the astro to play around with the lacrosse sticks and learn the basics of the game. After about fifteen minutes, we started a game between some of our younger students and the national team. It was a learning curve! In assembly, the assistant coach gave us an introduction to the team and to the game of lacrosse and then three players from the team stepped forward to speak to us about their experiences playing lacrosse in Israel: how they started, how they made the national team, and what it's like playing at such a high level.

It was an exciting as well as informative visit and many of us learned a lot about a sport we didn’t really know much about. I was surprised to find that there was such a big lacrosse community in Israel as I barely knew coming into this experience what lacrosse even was. We had a lot of fun with the coaches and players and we are thankful they came in to provide us with this unique experience. Thank you to Consul General of Israel in Hong Kong and Macao Mr. Amir Lati for letting us know the team were in Hong Kong.

Aviad, Grade 11