With baseball and softball officially up and running, spring sports have just come into full swing. As tennis players hit the court and runners make rounds on the track, girl’s lacrosse has, likewise, begun to lay down in the sun. Last week, the girls made use of their time at a lacrosse tournament by embracing the comeback of sunny, warm weather.

“We had two hours off between games,” explains Ellie Maxwell ‘22. “And then everyone started laying down [on the bleachers] to get tan, but no one wanted to wear sunscreen.” The lacrosse team played five teams within an eight-hour tournament. They went 3-2 on the day and made a great start to the beginning of their season.

The girls were excited to have a sunnier, spring day after just making it out of the winter cold. As clouds occasionally passed over the blaring sun, members of the team didn’t realize how much vitamin D they were really catching. Time went by until they were instructed by their coach to get back on the field. It didn’t take very long for the girls to realize that some of them were looking a little on the redder side. “I looked like an actual lobster,” says Ari Friedman ‘20. “A full lobster.”

Nearly every member of the team bore a painful and saturated sunburn in place of what they had wanted to be a nice, golden tan. “It’s tough because I’m especially on the pastier side,” says Tasha White ‘20. “I thought covering myself with my Black Dog sweatshirt would protect me, but I still got burned.”

As their season swings into full gear, the girls look to make it back to the state championship. They started the season off nicely with a 13-8 win over Oyster River on April 12 and a 15-7 win over Goffstown, who they previously lost to during their tournament, on April 17. As their season continues and they look to defeat the majority of their schedule, the girls now realize that sunscreen will only help their game playing abilities.

As team members and fellow peers alike may find the situation funny, not properly protecting yourself from the sun establishes risk for your adulthood. According to the Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS), around one half of your life’s UV exposure takes place during your childhood, largely due to participation in sports. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to prepare yourself for said UV exposure to prevent the future possibility of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.

While many of the girl’s lacrosse team members recall intermittent clouds blocking the sun, MCHS says that 70% of sun rays still travel through clouds. It may not seem like it, but you’re still getting a lot of sun. Next time, the girls have sworn to come better prepared for the threat of sunburn. “We’ve definitely learned our lesson,” says Meghan Veino ‘20. “No more sun! Just sunscreen!”

If you too plan on participating in sunny spring sports, here are some tips from MCHS on how to play it safe in the heat:

• Use a sunscreen with SPF of 15 or higher. If fair-skinned, use a sunscreen with SPF of 30. There are also sports sunscreens available to combat sweat.
• Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before exposure to the sun to give it time to penetrate the skin.
• Apply more to areas most likely to become sunburned, such as the nose, ears, cheeks, and shoulders.
• Reapply sunscreen every three to four hours, as well as after swimming or profuse sweating.
• Apply a lip balm that contains sunscreen.
• Where​ repeated burns occur, such as the nose, protect completely from all the sun’s rays with zinc oxide or titanium oxide ointment.

Take it from the girl’s lacrosse team: you can play hard, but the sun always plays harder.