Davis started out the season with three wins as girls lacrosse officially began as a sanctioned high school sport.

New head coach Makenzie Hekking expects some upperclassmen – senior midfielder Sam Wilkes, senior midfielder Piper Searle, senior Kelly Maynes, junior midfielder Macie Wood, junior defender Ava Bair and junior goalie Morgan Bunch – to be her main contributors on the field this season. Half of the Darts roster are freshmen, including some talented newcomers Tallulah Raser and Mackenzie Coleman.

The team has been focusing on building strength, agility and endurance along with fundamental stick skills.

“We obviously want to be competitive and make it to the postseason,” Hekking said.

Hekking played midfielder for Davis High’s first lacrosse team in 2010 and then for the nearest girls program at Woods Cross where she became an All-Star goalie her junior and senior seasons. She walked on at Westminster College and started as goalie all four years, earning team and league honors. After graduating, she was the Griffins volunteer coach from 2015 to 2018 and then went back to school for a masters degree. 

She was coaching a local 7th/8th grade team when she was asked to share “some pointers” with the DHS team. “Next thing I knew I was running the whole show,” she said.

Hekking believes in hard work and has high expectations of her players to put the time in to learn and improve. “To be successful in lacrosse you have to be a student of the game,” she said. “You can’t just show up and expect to be successful.”

“The first week of practice I have not been easy on the girls. They have a long way to go in stick skills and their overall athleticism if they want to be successful so I have been pushing them really hard.”

Also on the DHS squad are seniors Olivia Barker, Sierra Bastain, Shaylee Christensen, Kamryn Edgmon, Marissa Evans, Isabella Gloeckner and Martine Lie; juniors Kaylee Fiscus, Andie Gibbons/Gutierrez and Samantha Oswald; sophomores Ruby Jane Hollingsworth and Emma Williams; and freshmen Kennedy Barker, Mackenzie Coleman, Jacey Compton, Kaydence Johnson, Olivia Lifferth, Adeline Mathewson, Brooklyn McKenzie, Shea Miller, Kerri Norton, Brianna Oswald, Elle Pruitt, Tallulah Raser, Elisabeth Reid, Gracie Rose, Chloe Seamons, Kaybria Swenson, Brinlee Wilding and Allyson Wintle.

Hekking is being assisted by John Bunch and Brittin Hekking on the coaching staff this year.

The Davis High boys team returns senior captains Mason Kilgore, Luke Johnson, Andrew Barker, Kache Allen and junior captain Rhett Rice from a team that played just one game last season before it all shut down.

“We have a really strong group of seniors this year, especially on the defensive side,” head coach Dillon Yocom said, noting high expectations for goalie Allen along with d-poles Johnson, John Page and Nate Adams. d-middles Sam Lifferth and Damon Matthews and long stick midfielder Emerson Bell. 

Rice will lead the Darts offensively with his “very high lacrosse IQ and deadly shot,” according to Yocom, along with midfielders Kilgore, Jordan Phelps, David Spjut, Nick Johnson and Justin Lundskog and attackmen Blake Williams, Connor Johnson and Emmet Rice.

The team is “focusing on the things we can control” in aiming for success, according to Yocum. Yocum hails from New Hampshire where he fell in love with lacrosse. Upon moving to Utah in seventh grade, his father Trevor Yocom started the DHS and youth programs in Kaysville. Dillon Yocom played for the Darts during high school and decided to get into coaching six years ago.

“It’s been amazing to see the growth of lacrosse in Kaysville and I know that it all started with my dad,” Dillon Yocom said. Coach Yocom said he enjoys watching the way his players support each other and the growth of their character. “The young men here at Davis High have always been so amazing to work with,” he said. “Being able to help teach them life lessons that go beyond lacrosse has always meant a lot to me.”

Also on the DHS squad this year are Will Adams, Daniel Brough, Trenton Caldwell, Jacob Dowdle, Nick Evans, Jake Faerber, McCoy Frasure, Mason Gagner, Kash Gates, Josh Gibbons, Erik Hansen, Everett Hensley, Ethan Hood, Tage Jensen, Colin Kilgore, Jackson Kimmel, Talmage Kohler, Chase Lancaster, Charlie Mauss, Gabe Miles, Chase Nelson, Mack Niederhauser, Cade Norton, Cooper Peters, Tyler Pierson, Jaxon Reynolds, Logan Reynolds, Spencer Rigby, Ben Roylance, Jackson Rust, Carson Smolka, Taeten Stilson, Perry Sundstrom, Ute Thorpe, Luke Valentine and Deuce Wright,.

Yocom is being assisted on the coaching staff by Tim Richards, Trevor Yocom, Josh Bell and Nick Baker.

“The community of players and parents we have is so supportive and fosters a great team atmosphere,” Dillon Yocom said. “The Davis High faculty has been so supportive. Athletic Director Bo Roundy has been amazing to get lacrosse up and running at the school in our first sanctioned year.”