Girls lacrosse experiences growth under new leadership

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Girls varsity lacrosse head coach Brittany Stevenson poses with her team.

Going into this spring season, the girl’s lacrosse program was forced to hire a new coach only a few weeks before tryouts began. Brittany Stevenson was named the new varsity head coach and Sashah Ramirez remained the junior varsity coach.

Instead of continuing the season from last year, Stevenson had to start from scratch and become acquainted with new players during the tryout period. Another difference from last season was that the girls’ did not have many pre-season practices. They had to get to know one another, meet a new coach, and work as a cohesive team during the beginning of the new season.

“I have never gone into tryouts blind,” Stevenson said. “I had not seen any of the girls trying out for the team play before. I have always had the opportunity to work with or at least watch other teams I have coached in the past prior to the opening of the season. I was very pleasantly surprised on the first day by the amount of talent and potential that all of the girls have.”

Many players have adapted to the new coach’s style and are improving their lacrosse skills during the course of the season. However, girls lacrosse also had to deal with the season being interrupted by the polar vortex.

“Coach Brittany is a really good coach because she is very organized and has set guidelines for us at practice,” sophomore Mckenzie Walsh said. “Our season is still not how we would like it to be right now but we still have potential for the rest of the season. The weather this year has impacted us by the number of indoor practices we have had but so far we have been able to with it.”

Stevenson had to adjust her teaching methods to fit a new team in a short period of time.

“It was a bit of a challenge to try to reevaluate and change my past coaching methods with a new team and a slightly different style of play,” Stevenson said. “I have been incredibly lucky to have the support of the JV Coach, Coach Ramirez as well as a wonderful group of parents.”

One goal of Stevenson is to bring the entire team closer together, as lacrosse is not an individual sport. She believes that players need to learn to improve on their own but grow as a team.

“My number one priority for the season is to see continual progress as a team,” Stevenson said. “Lacrosse is very much a team game and with 12 players on the field it is not possible to win or lose a game dependent on a couple of players. The entire team has to learn to work as a unit and progress together. Of course it takes individual progress and commitment to move forward as well but if they are not committed to the team mentality and wanting to get better as a whole we will never grow.”

Junior Caitlyn Maginniss noticed a difference in the coaching styles between last year’s varsity coach Lindsey Linden and Stevenson.

“Coach Brittany played in college and has a lot of really helpful drills and pieces of advice that come from her experiences playing,” Maginniss said. “Our goals for the rest of the season are to leave everything out on the field. Win or lose, we should come off proud of how we played together.”

The girls lacrosse program has endured a lot of challenges over the past few years but Stevenson is determined to start the 2015 season on a high note.

“I think that we will see a ton of growth from the first to the last game,” Stevenson said. “We are very lucky to have two tremendous seniors but are also equally as fortunate to have so much incredible talent in the younger grades. In addition, we have an upcoming freshman class that I am very excited about. I am very eager and ready for the remainder of the 2014 season and the many successful seasons on the horizon.”