3rd Annual Fall Classic is a Success

On November 3rd, Randolph College Women’s Lacrosse hosted a Fall Classic for middle and high school players in the area. The field was divided in half and two 7v7 games were played simultaneously with twelve minute halves. Each team played four games and after all of the games were played there was an All-Star game. We all had such a hard time choosing the players from each team because everyone played amazing!  

We acted as coaches and referees throughout the day, which was a great opportunity for us to interact with some of the local, high school players. Nushaa Kaz '14 as well as Ashley Edwards '14 even conducted a clinic for the middle school players in between the games, it was a great way for the younger players to learn stick tricks and drills that we do in our everyday practices.

                 Nushaa Kaz ’14 & Ashley Edwards ’14 with their team

  

 Since we are usually playing, we rarely have the opportunity to coach or referee which was a new experience for our first-years. This classic not only allowed for community players to come together to play lacrosse but also allowed all of us to enjoy a beautiful day of being a part of the sport we love and give back to the community.

Being first-years ourselves, we enjoyed this event immensely because of the opportunity it gave us to spend time with our college teammates as well as some of the lacrosse players in central Virginia area. Many of us came from high schools from up north, so meeting some of the local players at this event as well as the Alzheimer’s Event we participated in earlier in this fall, was an amazing experience.

  Melanie Eisele ’14 from PA giving a half time talk to her high school team

  

Chelsea Marciniak ’17, stated, “I loved seeing these girls come out to play and appreciate the game I love as well. It felt good to be a strong leader on the field for them that day- knowing that I influenced their lacrosse experience.” As a team, we strive to build a bond between lacrosse players locally. As the Randolph College Women’s lacrosse team we always want to be a great example and support for the local community of young lacrosse players. We love the days where we are able to give back to them and the Fall Classic was a great way to serve them. It was a great day full of community and great lacrosse!

Written by Alyssa Unmberger 17’ and Chelsea Marciniak 17’

 

Hold the Rope

“When you can look at every member on your team and say to yourself that they would all hold the rope, you are destined to win a lot of lacrosse games.”  (Hold the Rope Poem- Anonymous)*.

‘Holding the Rope’ has great significance because it is the final component to making this season the best in program history.  If we do this one thing, we have all that we need to be a winning team. 'Holding the Rope' means that we are all on the same page when it comes to the amount of work that we put in. 'Holding the Rope' is about being a family and being there for each other. It is more than just working hard but it is that place deep within yourself where you remember that it is not just about you, but it is about the whole unit, the nineteen other teammates that are right alongside you. 'Holding the Rope' is for them, it is a way of remembering that you will hold it for them and that they will hold it for you. It’s a form of trust, respect and integrity.

As a team bonding exercise we all explained to one another what holding the rope means to each of us. Here are a few teammates quotes from our bonding exercise.

Erin Campbell 17’ explained what ‘Holding the Rope’ means to her, “During running, if I feel like slowing down, I say to myself ‘hold the rope.’”  This means to not give up and push through whatever tasks we are given, because we know it is about more than just us as individuals.”

           

“This team is my family away from home.  It is as if I have a family on campus, which is very important to me,” says Ebie Lowery 17’during one of our team bonding nights; and she is completely right. 

 “Holding the rope is a way of life for our team. I would do absolutely anything for these girls because they are my sisters,” says Ashley Edwards 14’, a senior captain. 

Each of us has an actual piece of rope that we wear on our bags and on our sticks to remind us daily of 'Holding the Rope'. We want to be there for one another through it all and we want to live out ‘Holding the Rope’ for one another. When a teammate earns an A on a Chemistry test, we are just as excited as they are. When a teammate is having a hard time at home, we are all there for her with whatever she may need, whether it’s driving her home or just being a shoulder to cry on.

We have such high expectations for this season and we know that every single person on this team is going work as hard as they can to make this team successful because we are all holding the rope. 'Holding the Rope' is when you can say that every member of this team will not let you fall off the ledge and we believe that every member is willing to hold that rope through it all. 'Holding the Rope' is more than a phrase it’s a way we live out being a family. 

*“Hold the Rope” is a poem that was written by an anonymous author. We do not claim ownership for writing this poem as it is just a poem we use for team encouragement.

Randolph Lax Gives Back!

This past Sunday, our team helped out a local private school town, the Virginia Episcopal School for their event Lax for Alzheimer’s Play Day. The head girl’s lacrosse team for VES, Justine Button, organized this event for middle school and high school girl’s lacrosse teams to play at.  Some teams came from an hour and a half away to participate in this day so we were very excited to work with them.

The first horn was blown at 12:30pm to kick start this amazing day off.  Throughout the day there were four games that play at a time; each lasting for 20 minutes. During these games, our jobs were to coach, ref, and cheer on the girls.  One of our favorite parts of the day was coaching because we really got to connect with the girls and answer their questions, as they were willing to learn and improve.  

One of our seniors, Nushaa Kaz ‘14, has coached some of these girls before on the JAB club team and was great with them at this play day. In her own words, “Coaching for JAB is always a blast; from the great energy the girls bring on the field to how excited they are just to be playing that day. They always work so hard and show such a passion for lacrosse, even the little ones, it just makes it an overall enjoyable time for all of us. Even being able to just catch up with them and see what they have been up to, and see how much they are growing on and off the field is a great reason to participate in this activity.”

Besides coaching, some of our teammates got to referee games.  It was a great experience for us because they had official referees there to correct us.  This will help us with our own game of college lacrosse because it allowed us to see the game from a different perspective.  

At the end of the day a few of our players held a clinic with our coaches, Coach Wagner and Coach Windsor.  We did a shooting drill and a 2 vs. 2 drill as well as our favorite one, box drill.  This enabled us to work one on one with the girls and help them work on things that they individually needed improvement on.  This also gave the girls an opportunity to ask questions, which they had plenty of.

Overall, we had a great time.  Not only was it great team bonding, but we got to help our community and support a great cause.  We look forward to doing it again next year along with holding our own Fall Classic on November 3^{rd *}.  We hope to see some of you out there for that!

 *If you are interested in attending the 2013 Fall Classic, please contact Coach Wagner at awagner@randolphcollege.edu*