This year’s girls varsity lacrosse season began on Feb. 13. During preseason, members of the team participated in training sessions consisting of strength and conditioning exercises with the High Performance Center coaches.
“The girls worked extremely hard with Coach [Ramiro] Mendez, one of our amazing strength and conditioning coaches,” Upper School Math teacher and Assistant Girls Varsity Lacrosse coach Melissa Battis said. “He helped them develop strength and power.”
The season took an unexpected turn when the previous head coach was replaced with Head Coach Katie Zarembski. Both Zarembski and Battis took the girls under their wings and assisted in helping guide them past the unexpected event.
“It is exciting to step in to coaching this season and work with the girls to see how much they can grow throughout the season,” Zarembski said. “I am definitely excited to help them each grow into better Lacrosse players and athletes.”
Battis says both coaches went into the beginning of the season with an open mind and goals of individual team growth and improvement.
“I want to make the girls love lacrosse,” Battis said. “I want to show them the sport and how amazing it can be.”
The team lost their season opener on Feb. 20 against McKinney High School.
“It was a tough loss, but it motivated us to work hard the rest of the season,” freshman Aanya Bhoria said.
Although this loss was not how the girls hoped to begin the season, they continued to work hard in and out of practice.
“We also hope the girls are playing wall-ball and working on their stick skills and conditioning on their own,” Zarembski said.
According to Zarembski, the girls persevered through challenges, demonstrating determination as they attempted to reach their goals. With resilience and grit, they pushed forward, overcoming obstacles along the way.
“The work that they put in throughout the season deserved a higher rating at [the Southwest Preparatory Conference Championship],” Zarembski said. “At the beginning of the season, they were losing 20 to zero and every game ended up being a running clock, but towards the end of the season, our last three games, none of them were running clock which is a huge feat. I am extremely proud of them.”
Although placing 11th in the SPC championships was not what the team was hoping for, the team is satisfied with their overall improvement as individuals and as a team.
“Although we did not end the season with the number of wins we wanted or the record we hoped for, seeing the improvement from players on the team was extremely exciting,” senior Devin Davis said. “We saw a lot of players that had little confidence in their abilities at the beginning of the season improve to score one, or even multiple, goals in the SPC tournament.”