Girls Lacrosse is finally here and the students on the team are all smiles! Many girls at Bay have wanted to play lacrosse at Bay but they didn’t have the opportunity until now! Two students in particular really pioneered the movement to bring lacrosse to Bay: 10th graders Lauren L. and Lauren O. The girls played club lacrosse together in middle school and when they got to Bay, they knew they wanted to continue the tradition and share a great sport with their classmates.
Starting a new sport at any school is not an easy feat and the two Laurens learned that from day one. After Lauren L. brought the idea to Athletic Director Steve Glass her freshman year, together both Laurens pushed hard for it this fall. Coach Glass could tell that they were serious but before starting the process of creating a new spring sport team, with all of the paperwork, scheduling and logistics that goes into it, the athletic department needed to see that there was enough interest and commitment to field a team.
Lauren and Lauren began a petition to demonstrate how many other students would play girls lacrosse if they could. They got 35 girls to sign the petition, well over the number needed to create a team. Knowing that “being interested” doesn’t necessarily mean “joining” the team, the girls set out to do some actual recruiting. Eventually, they were able to get 20 girls to join the team, most of whom had never played lacrosse before. Now that they had the players, the girls lacrosse team needed a coach. By way of Bay tradition, where students and staff members interview teaching or coaching candidates, Lauren L. and Lauren O. both interviewed head coach candidate, Alessandra Waste. Lauren L. says of the experience, “We wanted to see what her reactions to us would be, how she thinks about lacrosse as a player and how she would coach the girls.” After hiring Coach Waste, Coach Glass talked with Bay’s Teaching Fellow in Mathematics, Katie Burkhalter, who rounded out the team as the assistant coach and Bay’s girls lacrosse team was born!
Due to certain league deadlines, this year’s team is a club team, which means they don’t play other league teams but they practice three days a week on the Green Space and plan to scrimmage other teams by the end of the spring. Regardless of playing in a league this first year or not, the girls seem to be having a blast! “The group dynamic is awesome, the coach is awesome, and [although] we practice three days a week, girls are already asking when we are going to set up some pickup games!” Lauren O. said excitedly. With only three members having played lacrosse in the past, the team has been learning basics of the game and growing rapidly week by week. “Most of the girls don’t know how to play lacrosse but I’ve seen a lot of growth and development. In only the few weeks we have been practicing. I can already tell who will be good in the different positions, offensively and defensively,” said Lauren L.
We asked the girls what they would say to incoming 9th-grade girls who were interested in playing on the lacrosse. The answer… “They will automatically become MORE than part of a team.” Lauren O. says, “It’s a little community. We all make jokes and it’s a fun place to be. It’s the epitome of a Bay School sport where everyone is nice to each other… and it’s a primarily lowerclassmen team (only three juniors and no seniors), so we will go through the experience together!”
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