BY AUTUMN NUGENT, Sophomore
BLYTHEWOOD-- Sophomore Hailey Chaisson from Blythewood High School and her mother, Kristen Chaisson share their experience as player and coach on a high school lacrosse team. Hailey began playing her freshman year when her older sister invited her to try out for the team. Kristen Chaisson became an assistant coach the same year.
Hailey Chaisson says lacrosse is a team sport requiring everyone to work together. Since the team works so closely they end up sharing a bond with one another.
“We are a very close team,” Hailey said. She goes on to say that a team that bonds with one another will gain more trust and have more support, which will help out on the field.
Being a part of a team is not just about the bonding activities, it is also about putting the time and commitment into it. These things mean keeping track of both school work and lacrosse practice, according to Hailey Chaisson.
It was not hard for her to keep track of both school work and lacosse.
“I learned how to balance out my homework after practice and before games”, Hailey said.
But learning how to balance out classwork and lacrosse is not the only hard part, according to Kristen Chaisson.
“The hardest part of coaching a team is determining what to teach because my players have different levels of ability,” Kristen said. “Once one figures out what level of abilities the players have you want to make sure that one challenges the players who have already developed certain skill, but also support those who haven’t developed those skills yet.”
Players are not the only ones who can learn something from the game.
“I have learned from coaching lacrosse that the best lessons are learned when we are not winning the game; it’s learning from how we respond and react to one another when we are losing,” Kristen said.
“As a parent, I can help coach, spend a lot of time learning and playing the sport with my girls, and listening to their individual needs/wants of the game," she said.
In order to have a team, one needs a player to play the game, a parent to support the player and cheer on the team, and a coach to teach them and push them to do their best. That's what one needs to make a team.
