Vashon Black, the seventh- and eighth-grade lacrosse team, placed first in the South Sound League Lacrosse Tournament May 19 and 20 in Enumclaw, making them division champions.

Head coach Eric Hecht praised the team, saying they won six games in a 24-hour period, and their opponents, from all over the south sound, kept getting tougher and tougher to beat.

“These guys just fought so hard and kept winning,” he said. “They finished as champions. It is really, really, really cool.”

Hecht has coached the team since some of the players were in third grade. Last week, he shared some of its history, along with his enthusiasm for their accomplishments. The first year, he said, there were not enough players to field a team. In the fourth grade, they were put in a division with teams from the largest school by accident. They were “demolished” every game, he said, with scores like 20-0, but all the players signed up again the next year.

“Right then we knew we had a special group of kids,” he said.

From there the team progressed, first winning three to four games a season, then five or six. This year, they finished with a 9-1 record, Hecht said, noting they lost to an “amazing” team by one goal.

The season culminated with the tournament, which included 25 clubs, with many from much larger communities, including Olympia, Tacoma and the Olympic Peninsula.

“We won and won and won and kept on winning,” Hecht said.

This was Hecht’s last year coaching, as more than 10 of his players will play for the high school team, the Vashon Vultures, next year.

“They are going to do really good things,” he said. “That will be exciting for the island.”

Hecht’s fellow coaches were Brent Poole, Robert Mazur, Bret Magdasy and Karl Zapf.

— Susan Riemer