Women’s Lacrosse brings on a JV team

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Coach Greenhaw talks to the JV team during halftime at their game against Wake Forest. The girls lost to the Cougars 0-7.

 

As the 2016 Lacrosse season begins here at Leesville, the women’s program made some changes. This year a junior varsity team deputed along side the varsity team for the first time since the beginning of the women’s team. The team consists of 14 freshman and sophomore girls.

Rachel Mcirvine, sophomore, was selected as one of the JV captains by the girls. This is her first year playing for Leesville women’s lacrosse. “My role as the captain for the Junior Varsity team is just mainly to talk the girls up a little bit about themselves because I think one of the main issues is confidence and of course like 99% of us are brand new to the sport completely so just having that confidence and being able to go into your first game and acting like you are the boss of everything is just kind of a really big thing,” said Mcirvine.

On Tuesday, March 8 the girls played their first game against Wake Forest. After a hard fought game, the girls couldn’t pull off the win but walked off the field with their heads high. On the following wednesday, Greenhaw had a spreadsheet for the JV team on all of their accomplishments in the game and ways they can improve in the game. “I think that getting our first game out of the way really did settle some nerves and even though we didn’t win, I still think that a lot of us walked away feeling like we’d won just because we had worked so hard and we had learned the sport and we learned the penalties and I think that we were just really proud of ourselves for getting out there for the first time and just kind of putting our best foot forward,” said Mcirvine.

As a first year team, disadvantages are sure to come along throughout the season. Not only is it difficult for the girls to create their own team chemistry but it is also hard for the coaches to establish a great base for the girls and make it easy for them to grow. When the women’s varsity team began, it took a great amount of time to even figure out how to run the team and show the other schools that they could be competitive. One great advantage the junior varsity girls have, thought, is they have the opportunity to work with the varsity girls often during practice. This opens their eyes to more realistic game like experiences and shows them different techniques they haven’t learned yet.

With the season pushing on, the coaches and both the varsity girls and JV girls work hard to advance their game and their team. Tyler Mae Stempien, a junior on varsity, engages a lot with the jv girls during practices. “We help the JV team by improving their knowledge in game like scenarios. We work with them in practice, scrimmaging them. It gives them a bigger advantage to play harder teams because since the majority of the varsity girls have played longer, we have more experience,” said Stempien.

Along with other Pride sports teams, the junior varsity girls work their hardest each and every practice to get better and cannot wait for what more the season has in store for them. Come out and support your lady laxers as both teams take on Wakefield on March 22.

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