Lacrosse has become one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and this spring it makes it way to the New River Valley with the addition of varsity lacrosse for both boys and girls at Christiansburg and Blacksburg high schools.
The NRV Lacrosse Club had advocated for the sport at the varsity level for several years after playing as an area team. Athletes from both schools played on the same team. Now the two have been able to field squads for male and female players.
Blacksburg will play all their games at the high school, while Christiansburg will split games between the middle school, the old middle school and Shawsville Middle School because the current construction on the school’s football field. Next year, the Christiansburg lacrosse program will use a new turf field.
Several of the female players at Blacksburg have some experience on the lacrosse field and that should be a plus for first-year coach Kati Williams. The team is young but pushed close to 26 players when the roster was written.
“We will set attainable goals for ourselves and celebrate all our successes,” Williams said.
She hopes to create a culture of hard work, fun and a love for the game of lacrosse.
Carla Corvin will coach the girls’ team at CHS. Some of the more experienced players, like captains, Maddi Wade and Mollie Straub (seniors), will bring leadership and lacrosse knowledge to teach the younger and more inexperienced teammates this season.
They not only bring upbeat attitudes, according to Corvin, but they are also both excellent role models for the other players to aspire to. She listed Caitlyn Caudell (sophomore), Jayme Hinkley (sophomore), Shuler Williams just to name a few.
The lack of a true home field does have its challenges and negative aspects for the Blue Demons.
“At first, we were told that we would have to travel to the middle school every afternoon for practice because of limited space at the high school. We have a quite a few players that don’t drive yet, so transportation to the middle school for all practices was going to be challenging. Coach Cromer has been working so hard for us and has thankfully figured out a way for our team to be able to practice at the high school,” Corvin said.
“Traveling for most of our games is not ideal, but we can endure one season of travel when we know that we are getting a state-of-the-art field at the high school to play on next year” (freshman), and Mackenzie Salter (freshman) all have a background in lacrosse and contribute their knowledge and positivity towards the team as well,” she said.
As a first-year program, the team will be young and small in number.
“But, we are so excited to be a part of the first girls’ lacrosse team at Christiansburg High School that we don’t even think about that. Our players are so eager to learn, it makes coaching them fun,” Corvin said. “Coach Daney and I are very excited and optimistic about this season.”
The goal for the first season is simple as the players are taught the proper lacrosse knowledge and skills, learn how to work as a team and with any luck, gain a love for the sport.
So far, the response from the kids has great, Corvin said.
“Being as it’s our first season, the response and turnout was expectantly low. But, having a small team in its beginning year, will probably work in our favor,” she said. “We can work with the girls more individually and give them more opportunities to build on their lacrosse skills more than they would be able to do on a larger team.”
Matt Heron will lead the Christiansburg boys team and has had a positive turnout this spring with 34 players including some experience in Mac Padgett, Matthew Davidson, Rafael Laureano and Kyle Herndon.
“We want to build the base for a positive program moving forward,” he said.
Geoff Rowland has experience at the club level and will lead a Bruin team that also has some experienced players. The club team finished 7-5 last season and returns three outstanding offensive players to this year’s varsity squad.
They include: Spencer Amacher 16 goals, seven assists, 62 groundballs; Aist Rowland 19 goals, four assists, 25 groundballs; and Chase Seward 13 goals, seven assists, 33 groundballs.
According to the coach, it will be a learning year for most of the players who are new to the sport.
Rowland like his county counterparts hopes to lay a strong foundation of hard work, solid fundamentals, and teamwork that he can build a successful BHS boys lacrosse program on.
“We will be successful if we can steadily improve over the course of the season, play together as a team, and generate interest that will recruit athletes from the current and future BHS student body to the sport of lacrosse,” he said.
Blacksburg has also had a tremendously positive response from the community, school system, teachers, parents, administration, other BHS sports programs, and students.
“We have been continuously impressed with the amount of support we have been gladly offered at each step of the way. The response from players has been strong as well. As more students see the sport, become more familiar with all it offers, and hear what their peers who are playing have to say about it, we expect that will lead to an even bigger response and turnout of athletes for next year’s team,” he said
