Women's Lacrosse Volunteers at the Virginia 10 Miler

The Genworth Virginia 10 Miler celebrated its 41st year of racing on September 26th, 2014 with over 4,000 participants. The races included a 10 mile run and a 4 mile run or walk with competitors of all ages. Several of our Randolph college student body organizations decided to take part in the community with this historic and exciting event. Randolph College served as the finishing point of the 4 miler event and the Randolph College Women’s Lacrosse team was able to volunteer and have the honor of handing out medals to the finishers of the run and walk portion of the 4 miler event. Two of the members of our team talked about their volunteering experiences.  

In yellow from left to right, Samantha Fagone 15', Alyssa Umberger 17', and Kristiana Kuqi 18' are handing out medals at the finish line

For many of the members on the team this was their first time volunteering for this event, like Addie Moore 17' from Lexington, VA. She said, “This was my first experience volunteering for The VA 10 miler event, but a lot of my older friends and teammates had previously volunteered for this event and said the experience was really amazing. Now that I have volunteered for the event I completely agree with them on what an amazing experience it was and I look forward to doing it again!” As an all around consensus on the team everyone had a great time and loved the positive environment that the event brought. Casey Coleman 18' stated, “As a team, we stood at the finish line and distributed medals to the runners and walkers who participated. It was super fun and rewarding because seeing people finish something that they trained for, pushed themselves to complete, and maybe even never imagined themselves finishing was inspiring. I really enjoyed giving them a reward to acknowledge their efforts and seeing the happiness and satisfaction on their faces!”This event was also a great team building activity for us because we were able to have this gratifying experience together and have the satisfaction of congratulating these amazing people for their finish. Another rare occurrence that the race brought us was the experience to see four people from Nigeria run in the race and also members from our own Randolph cross country team who competed and did very well. We enjoyed watching Dani Hill 17' who was Randolph’s first Women’s XC runner to cross the finish line. She posted the second-fastest four mile time in program history and she was the first finisher for the 15-19 age group.

Coleman 18' later stated, “Because I am a student at this small Liberal Arts school, I am provided with numerous opportunities to take a part in community events and help out with local businesses.” Having this opportunity at our fingertips as a team and a school community to be involved in Lynchburg and this event was a perfect way for helping Casey, as a freshman, to get settled in at Randolph, a new town, and new environment. She also said, “When I was moving to Randolph in August for freshman orientation, I was worried about how many friends I would make, but within the first couple of days I had made so many friends right away thanks to the lacrosse team, the Community Service day that all of the first years did, and orientation.” Moore 17' also agreed with Coleman saying, “I remember when I first got here and right away I had a group of about fifteen automatic friends on the lacrosse team that no matter would be there for me.” They both agreed in saying that being a part of Randolph’s Women’s Lacrosse team and having these great group of ladies and coaches supporting us helps us to reach out into the community and give back, but also to grows us as a team. 

Taylor Riccardi 16' and Chelsea Marciniak 17' waiting to honor participants with  medals

Written by: Addie Moore 17' 

A Summer Coaching Experience

I am Taylor Klevenz a Senior Captain on the Randolph College Women’s Lacrosse team. Our team is full of players with different life aspirations such as doctors, teachers and nurses. Ever since I was a little kid I was always outside playing sport’s which has had a big impact on why my personal life aspiration is to become a Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach.  This past summer I was offered an opportunity coaching for a travel team, Ultimate Lacrosse. Ultimate Lacrosse is a high level travel program located in Pennsylvania. They have team ranging from sixth grade to twelfth grade. I was the coach of the sixth and seventh grade team. I have coached in the past for small clinics and JAB lacrosse in Lynchburg,Virginia but this was my great learning opportunity because it was my first experience being a Co-Coach of my very own team. Joining me on this coaching experience was KarlaAne; a graduate from Chestnut Hill College.Practices were held twice a week.   

 Practice planning was something that was new to me and I quickly realized that I needed to be strategic as well as put the time into developing practice. I learned that planning practice is a lot more difficult than I had imagined. I came to realize that it is really important to make sure to incorporate drills that will benefit your team on their strengths and weaknesses. Since my team did not have the best stick skills I made sure to include a lot of wall ball, passing and dodges. With this being a young age group, I knew with practice I wanted to stick to the fundamentals of lacrosse. One of my favorite practices was when I brought water balloons to practice to have the girls learn how to give with the ball. Using water balloons is a good idea for this age group because it keeps them interested and focused on not breaking the balloon but at the same time they are learning how to give with their sticks. Seeing the improvement of their stick skills from the first practice to the last was one of my biggest accomplishments of coaching. 

My team went to tournaments every weekend for two months out of the summer. Attending tournaments was my favorite thing about coaching. I got to travel to different places such as  New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and one tournament even took place in my hometown Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  A typical day at the tournaments starts off with registering your team. Once everyone is registered we can start warming up, which usually consist of a warm up lap, stretching, shuttles and three v twos to goal. We would play around three to four games in a day. Each game would last an hour thirty minute halves with a five minute half time.  While we had breaks the girl’s parents would have a tailgate set up for them with food and drinks. This was a good place to rest and refuel throughout the day. The tournaments had a great atmosphere and we were able to be surrounded by lacrosse all day long. One of the best experiences was when we played in our first tournament, The Round Up which took place in Downingtown, Pennsylvania and we went undefeated on the weekend. As coaches we were very happy to have gone undefeated in our first coaching experience and it gave the girls confidence going into the rest of the summer.

Part of my responsibility at the tournaments was to be in charge of making substitutions during the games. Since we had a young age group everyone was guaranteed playing time. I still had to make important decisions during close games of who should be taking the draw or having our best defenders and attackers on the field. This was a key aspect in some of our wins. There was a lot of pressure to make these decisions but towards the end of the summer I found out what girls worked well together. This taught me an important aspect of coaching, knowing your team.

Overall this coaching experience really opened my eyes to a lot of new aspects to coaching. Watching the girls develop into better lacrosse players and knowing I helped make that possible was one of the most satisfying feelings. It was hard work and required long days and hours of planning but it was all worth it to see the smile on my teams face after a big win. From planning practices to subbing on the fly there is nothing else I can picture myself doing than coaching the sport I love. 

               Taylor Klevenz 15' (right) pictured with Co-Coach KarlaAne (left)

 Written by: Taylor Klevenz 15'