This season, for the first time in many years, George Mason High School is fielding a JV lacrosse team. And it’s a team comprised entirely of eighth-graders.

The girls won their first scrimmage against George C. Marshall High School last month and have won their first three games of the season against Loudon Valley, Potomac Falls and Dominion high schools.

The team is coached by Courtney Gibbons, a two-time U.S. Lacrosse Girls’ High School All-American and Monroe County Player of the Year from Fairport, New York. Gibbons has been the head coach at George Mason since 2009 and was named the 2010 Dulles District Coach of the Year.

Alongside Gibbons, Hannah McBee, a former Division 1 lacrosse player from Old Dominion University and All-CAA team player brings her expertise as coach and mentor to the JV team.

This group of eighth-grader girls started playing together with the Falls Church Youth Lacrosse Club in 2009. In addition to years together in the rec program, the Mason athletes have attended camps together and played off season in fall tournaments and winter indoor leagues to improve their skills and teamwork.

Most recently, many of the players were on the championship team of the winter indoor league sponsored by Prospects Pride in Vienna. The girls also won four of their six games in the JV division at the most recent Fairfax Fall Brawl, besting teams from Woodson, Madison, Robinson, and Chantilly.