“Lead boldly, compete fiercely, and love strong.” These are the three pillars that coach Elaine Arnold instills into her players on Parkway North’s varsity girls lacrosse team, which started five years ago and is still growing.
“It’s a growing sport.” Arnold said. “At Parkway North, we know that our student population is really small, and so the large majority of athletes in the spring go to either girls soccer or to track and field, so we’re kind of competing with those two sports.”
The team has around 25 players this year from all four grades, including freshmen who had the chance to play in middle school as well as players more new to the sport.
“I think if we had a JV team, it would be a little bit easier to get the fundamentals out of the way on a JV level, and then when they get to varsity, it’s more about the actual gameplay and about running an offense and defense and setting up plays to facilitate a better game,” Arnold said.
However, having only one team has given upperclassmen and underclassmen a chance to connect.
“It’s always been kind of like a community… Most of our team are younger girls, and they can’t drive, so [the upperclassmen] drive people around or do team bonding as a team,” said senior Elizabeth Korte, who has played lacrosse since middle school. “We have an hour in between school and practice, [and] we would stay after school, get dressed together and talk during that one hour, and it really builds a team relationship.”
Examples of team bonding for the players include eating brunch and lunch together and going to see a college-level lacrosse game.
“It’s a really good environment,” sophomore Paige Olmstead said. It is Olmstead’s second year with the team. “I like the team. I like the people, and I like the coaches. It’s very close knit.”
Many players enjoy lacrosse not only for the community but also for the sport itself.
“It’s nice to just be able to go out there and throw around the ball and shoot; it’s just kind of like a stress reliever in a sense,” said Korte. “I’m getting my body moving, so it feels good mentally and physically to be out there playing.”
The team has seven games left this season. The next one is at home on April 17.
“I think that one of my biggest goals this year is for every single girl to be 100 percent bought in on, ‘I am a lacrosse player’, and not just ‘I’m out here to play lacrosse for one season’… but ‘I’m a lacrosse player all year round,’” Arnold said.
