Girls lacrosse had their first captains practice Nov. 4. These practices continue throughout the winter, leading up to the actual season, which starts in the spring. Practices are mixed with building up skills before the season as well as more team bonding-focused practices.
According to coach Kate Pearson, practices don’t usually start this early in the year. She said starting early gives the girls a chance to hone their skills before the season.
“They start pretty early. It’s November, and our season doesn’t start until April, so it gives them the chance to do stick work in the off-season that they might not have time to practice during the season,” Pearson said. “It gives them a lot of time to perfect some of their skills.”
Senior Zara Fakier said current practices are focused on team bonding and boosting morale. She said there are plans for more skill-based practices closer to the start of the season.
“Right now, I would say team building, but I know some of the captains are gonna plan on doing more skill-based practices later towards the season,” Fakier said.
According to senior Norah Robertson, the captains are more focused on getting a good mix of both team bonding and conditioning practices in. She said while some are more fun and have games, others will highlight drills.
“We try to get a good combination in. Some of the practices will be more geared towards team bonding and having fun and playing games, and others will be doing conditioning and drills with the team,” Robertson said.
According to Fakier, captains’ practices help bring the team together. She said it’s a great way to ease into things.
“It helps, just bring the team together before the actual season starts,” Fakier said. “It’s just a way to start slowly if you haven’t done anything yet.”
According to Pearson, the primary thing they are doing is focusing on these captain’s practices. She said fine-tuning skills are crucial to fill in gaps that the girls from last year left.
“Captain’s practices is one big thing that we’re doing. We’re making sure that stick skills are a lot more fine-tuned, and then we lost a lot of players that we’ve had for a long time because they graduated last year,” Pearson said. “So really making sure that the girls are able to fill some of those holes and play together as a team will help for next season. That’s what we’re working on.”
Robertson said to prepare for the upcoming season the team is doing a fall league. She said fundraising and practices are essential.
“We’re doing Chillax right now, which is a fall league, and we’re doing a lot of captains practices and fundraising,” Robertson said.
