Gettysburg

With our first scrimmage less than 3 weeks away, we have been working hard to prepare. The scrimmage is against Gettysburg. Gettysburg is also the host city of the 2010 national championship weekend. Our hopes are to start and end our season in Gettysburg. Throughout the fall our coach would give “missions” where someone on the team had to find a quote of some sort relating to Gettysburg and to our team. One girl read the speech Coach Boone says in Remember the Titans. The quote is:

“This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we are still fighting among ourselves today. This green field right here, painted red, bubblin' with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men. I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen, and you take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other. And maybe...I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men.”

As a team you don’t have to like each other but on the field you have to work well and not let things effect you. We’re always told to leave things off the field and for me lacrosse has been a place where I can forget about all my worries. If we want to win a national championship we have to respect each other and fight the battle together.

A Recap

During the 2009 Lock Haven Lacrosse season, we had one goal in mind, to make it to the NCAA Division II final four. All season we would ask ourselves “where do we want to be on May 16th and 17th?” The answer was easy; it was getting there that was harder. We trained with the constant reminder that we wanted to make it to the NCAA final four and show everyone what we were made of. We pushed ourselves and each other from day one because we knew we could make it, we knew it would take that title.
On May 16th, we were there. We had made it to the final four. It was quite the experience just to be there and experience the spotlight. May 16th was the semi finals where we played Limestone University for a spot in the final game. We won by 1 with only seconds left in the game. Knowing we had conquered Limestone after being defeated by them over Spring Break earlier that year, was an amazing feeling. We felt unstoppable.
After making it this far, the only thing left was the championship round against Adelphi University. Unfortunately, we were not ready to go this far. All season we asked each other where we wanted to be and we knew we wanted to get that far, but we did not prepare ourselves for what we would do once we got there. We held Adelphi for the first 15 minutes and then after that they just took it to us. The lack of preparation and nerves mixed together made us not play our game. We could of taken them, but we only thought of getting there, we did not think of the next step…winning it all.
This year, we have the constant reminder of the 2nd place trophy that is sitting in my coach’s office. Knowing we made it as far as we did last year, gives us the confidence to make it there again. We also have the knowledge that getting there is only the beginning, it’s what you do when you are there that really matters.