Georgia, Emma, Naomi, Sara and Callie started playing field lacrosse with us in 2021 and Sam joined them shortly afterwards. They were in Grade 8, none had played field lacrosse competitively, only Georgia had played box lacrosse. Our first practice was spent describing how to hold the stick, learn to scoop balls, and how to throw and catch. The absolute basics. After maybe a handful of practices they threw on some terrible gym class pinnies and we threw them into the fire playing real games against experienced teams.
The outcomes were as expected, but despite some challenges they kept coming back, week after week and now season after season. And we should add, this all started in the middle of a pandemic with more than a year of lost organized activities. This is all unheard of for girls that age and in those circumstances. It is truly SPECIAL.
We want to recognize these girls as being trailblazers for our oldest age group in our program. Without them our U19 teams wouldn’t exist, and we would still be at least a year away from being where we are right now in our U19 age group. These girls have gone from learning to play in gym class pinnies to playing for a medal in the "A" division of U19, with a "B" championship along the way.It has been an honour to be affiliated with these girls. We have enjoyed watching you grow as players and young women.
We hope they find a way to stay involved in the sport.
Head Coach Dan Francis
We also have one more thing to recognize. During the initial year in 2021 for this age group a father started volunteering as a trainer. At the end of the season he offered to take over coaching the group. Four years later he remained committed to this group. His steady, calm approach has offered stability and a safe place for these girls to flourish.
So a HUGE thank you to head coach Dan Francis, we wouldn’t be here without him.
