The game of lacrosse is the oldest organized sport in North America, dating back as early as the 12th century.

However, at the high school level in the Sunshine State, lacrosse is still in its infancy as a sanctioned sport by the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), and it’s super competitive.

In fact, it started out as just a single classification with all schools playing for just one overall state championship trophy.

St. Andrew’s (Boca Raton) won the inaugural FHSAA state championship in 2018 and has won three straight and four of the first five state titles. Vero Beach won the inaugural girls state championship and won seven consecutive championships.

After COVID-19, it expanded to two classifications (Class 1A and 2A) in 2021.

“They split it, and they’re going to split it again,” said Jonathan Montes, who has coached the Oak Hall boys program since 2015. “For almost all classifications, I think they’re going for some form of a super eight, Elite Eight…really when they split it between 1A and 2A, that was the right thing to do. Honestly, they could probably split it again and segment it a little bit more and split schools off that have dorms from schools that don’t.”

Oak Hall has come a long way since then. In fact, this year’s team is ranked No. 12 nationally by MaxPreps.

“When I moved here (2012), what I wanted for Oak Hall School was top-of-mind awareness for lacrosse,” said Montes. “When you thought of athletics, I wanted Oak Hall lacrosse to come to your mind, and we wanted to project guys into college at a very high rate, and we did that, and we’re still doing that.”

The Eagles are playing a loaded schedule which includes bigger schools like Ponte Vedra (April 4), which lost in the region final to eventual 2A state champion Lake Mary, Creekside (St. Johns), an 8-5 OHS win on Feb. 28, and Buchholz, who they dominated this past Friday in an 18-2 win.

By comparison, Creekside competed in 7A in football this past fall, while Buchholz (6A) and Ponte Vedra (5A) also participate in the higher classifications.

Although Oak Hall does not compete in the FHSAA for football, they are a 2A school in basketball and 1A in baseball.

“It’s never been an impediment,” Montes said.

That’s because OHS has what he calls the “pillars of greatness.”

“You’ve got to have an elite coaching staff, administrative support, and we have that. The administrators here, particularly the head of the school, cares about the program and the athletic director, they’ve got to care about the program, or else it disappears,” he said. “And then you have to have players that want to be great and potentially play at the college level, and the last thing you need is parents. You have to have parents that truly believe and buy into your system and want to be a part of what you do.”

OHS has a lot of pieces, including a “high-end goalie and a high-end faceoff man.”

“We have both of those,” Montes said. “So, you start there. We have multiple guys that can face off now, so right away, we’re going to be in 90% of the games regardless because of those positions. But then you go into the depth we have at the pole position, the depth that we have this year at the midfield position, and then the level of skill of our attack men. We’re poised to do some really good things.”

Last month, three players signed to play collegiately, including the coach’s son, attacker Pierce Montes (Rollins College).

Pierce has the most points in school history (339) heading into his senior year, goalkeeper Tyler Trefzger (University of Alabama in Huntsville), holds the school records for the most saves in a career (334) and the most saves in a game (16 vs. Tallahassee Maclay), and attacker/midfielder Simon Myers is a University of Montevallo in Alabama signee.

Coach Montes also singled out seniors Tommy Weber and Myles Sims.

“Those two guys are superstars,” Montes said. “They could play at a majority of colleges in the state of Florida if they wanted to, and up and down the east coast. They’re that good.”

Other players that Montes expects to “turn the corner” are junior Parker Kohlhaas, sophomore Dominic Moreschi and sophomore Bryce Williams, who moved from Atlanta.

OHS has been a final eight team multiple times, including last year’s heartbreaking 9-8 loss in overtime to Bolles (Jacksonville) in the 1A-Region 1 Final, denying the Eagles (17-4) their first final four appearance in program history.

“Just trying to overcome a Ponte Vedra in their heyday with some of the best players in the nation on that team and trying to overcome Bolles, who has a conglomerate of a lot of different guys, they’re a quality team,” Montes said. “We didn’t lose to anybody that was average in those runs. We lost to high-end teams with high-end players, guys that have gone on to be some of the best players in their division at the college level.”

The Eagles (7-1), whose only setback was an 8-7 loss against 9-1 Bishop Moore (Orlando), are back at home at 7 p.m. tonight in a doubleheader with the girls.

The Lady Eagles (7-0) host Ponte Vedra at 5 p.m., followed by the boys game against Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine).

Oak Hall competes in 1A-District 4 with Eastside, Newberry, Santa Fe (Alachua) and Trinity Catholic (Ocala), who they defeated 19-8 on March 3.

“These guys are motivated,” Montes said. “We think we’ll be in the final eight, and we think we have a shot for the first time to go to the state championship. Are we state championship quality and ready? We’re going to find out…there are super impressive teams that we’re going to have to beat, but these guys have been playing lacrosse in this area since they’ve been five and seven years old. People don’t realize that. This has been their life’s journey. These guys know how to play the game.”