Your daughter has chosen to participate in lacrosse. Girls who play sports are less likely to drop out of school, more likely to go on to college, and more likely to graduate from college. They also have one of the lowest rates of tobacco use among any sector of the high-school population.
For more information about Lacrosse rules and equipment, check out the page titled 'For Players'.
Both you and your daughter are part of our team. Your daughter has a lot of responsibilities this spring - to work hard in school, to get a good nights sleep and eat well so she has the energy and focus to play, and to be a positive and enthusiastic player on the field. She is going to need your help as a parent, and also as a team volunteer. Our program is coordinated and coached by parents and volunteers, and we need your help!
Here are some of the places we'll need help this season:
- Carpooling.
The Senior team for example, will practice three times a week; play fifteen games this season; and participates in three weekend tournaments. Doing all this driving alone would be superhuman! Please make sure we have your contact information to make available to players who might need rides. The Juniors practice 2x a week and also may have 2 tournaments. - Fundraising.
Your daughter’s registration fee almost covers hiring officials for games, purchasing team equipment like uniforms, goggles, goals, and nets, and having the fields lined for practices and games. Any ‘extras’ like team sweatshirts, weekend tournament registration fees, and an end-of-season barbeque can only be supported with fundraising. - Helping at games or practices
Since you’ll be coming to games to cheer for your daughter, please consider bringing orange slices for the girls at half-time, volunteering to keep time and score at home games; or if you’re really ready for the big-leagues, volunteering to coordinate these efforts between other parents.
If you are interested in helping coach, you should talk to Coach Pepin (Bonnie Burnham 584-7482.) An assistant coach would come to practices and games to help out and make sure we are all on the same page. No lacrosse experience is necessary, just that you be a good communicator and willing to learn and have fun! - If you like being outdoors, and you look good in black and white, consider becoming an official. Plenty of training is available, and you will be sure to be the most lacrosse-fluent parent on the sidelines! Liz Ryan (lizzardear@comcast.net) is the Western Mass Lacrosse Officials Council chair, and a 5th grade lacrosse coach!
- Website.
We would like our website to be a bigger part of our program communication hub. If you’re technically inclined and check your e-mail regularly, consider becoming our program web-master. You will get a copy of our website manual, and everlasting gratitude from our coaches. In addition, you’ll be the first to hear about team news. Webmasters should contact their coach for information. - Line fields: The Junior and Senior teams play at Parcel 3 (State Hospital land) and we are responsible for lining our field. As you learn about our game, you will see how important a lined field is! No experience is necessary and you won’t have to measure out the field each week – you can follow last week’s faded lines. Coach Pepin will show you how. This would require about ½ hour of time each week during the season. Sound like fun? Call Coach Pepin (dpepin@forwild.umass.edu or 584-7886).
- Team support for weekend tournaments.
The Junior and Seniors teams will play a few weekend tournaments throughout the season. These are a great experience for the girls, and give parents the opportunity to spend the day immersed in their daughter’s sport. For each tournament, we need a group of parents to set up and clean up the team’s ‘dining fly area’, which serves as our home base, and stock tent supplies (trash bags). - Program End-of-Season Picnic Committee.
Each year, we have an end-of-season picnic for the teams to celebrate another successful season. We would like to ask one or several families to collaborate to lighten our load. A small committee ( from Bantam, Juniors and Seniors) would need to pick a date, a location, to make a shopping list. And of course, if you serve on this committee you get to plan the menu! Thanks
