The days are getting longer and the weather’s getting warmer. This can only mean one thing for Chamblee athletes: the start of the 2023 spring sports season. One of Chamblee’s most popular sports, girl’s lacrosse, has undergone a few changes with its program, including two brand new coaches, a move to a new region for games, and a brand new practice schedule. Despite these changes, players on Chamblee’s girls’ lacrosse team are expecting to have a promising season. 

Varsity player Rachel Runsick (‘23) shares her expectations for the 2023 season.

“I’ve been on the team for four years and I have had a lot of fun the last four years but there are different coaches [this year] so we’ll see how it goes. I think this season will be a lot more serious and a lot more focused. The new coaches are a lot more strict and down to business. I also think [this season] will be a lot more productive,” said Runsick.

Moving to a harder region means playing tougher teams, however, Runsick is up for the challenge and is looking forward to playing in more competitive games.

“Our first game is [against Blessed Trinity] so that is definitely going to be a shocker there. I’m not really looking forward to that one, because they’re really good,” said Runsick. “But, I’m really excited [for] when we play some of our more competitive region games. Nobody’s blowing anybody else away, those will be fun, competitive games. I would like us to win over five of our games, but we’ll see how that goes.” 

Junior Sutton Feaster shares her thoughts on how the new coaches are inspiring change in the player base.

“[The new coaches have] definitely changed a lot of things already this season. I can [already] see people trying harder [in] practice, which I think is a really good change,” said Feaster. “I also think with our new coaches, people are going to be putting in a lot more effort like showing up to practice more. Hopefully we’ll see the results from that in our games. I think, like I said before, it’s just going to show in the games and we will just be better as a team.” 

Along with the new coaches, Feaster also shares her thoughts on the new practice schedule, which now includes morning practices. 

“I actually am thoroughly enjoying the new practice schedule. I like it because it gives me time to go to the gym after school two days a week, which is nice,” said Feaster.

Feaster has been on the team for two years and remembers beating St. Pius last season as one of her favorite lacrosse memories. 

“I was on the team my freshman and sophomore year and my experience was pretty good. Freshman year was my first year playing and I learned a lot and picked up the sport pretty quick. My favorite memory was when JV beat Pius last year, that was a pretty good game,” said Feaster.

This season, Feaster hopes to get a third consecutive win against Dunwoody and believes Varsity will be a force to be reckoned with.

“It’s hard to tell now but I think I feel like varsity is pretty strong this year,” said Feaster. I know on JV, we have a lot of new girls, but I think they’re learning [lacrosse] pretty quickly, I think they should be good too. Hopefully, we’ll beat Dunwoody again this year.” 

Riley Yerovsek (‘25), has been on the team since her freshman year and made the varsity team this season.

“I was on the team last year and it was a good experience because everyone was really close. It was like a family, it was really fun because we all bonded really well,” said Yerosek. “[This season] we have two female coaches instead of one guy coach, we have a smaller team, and we have a lot of new players. [These Changes] were hard at first but they’re for the better for the team because the coaches actually played girls lacrosse so it’s been helpful and we’re learning a lot more.”

Along with just playing on the team, Yerosvek has shown great leadership skills and was named captain for the varsity team. She shares what being captain means to her. 

“[Being captain] means leadership on and off the field and it doesn’t have to be leadership like teaching, but it’s a mental game as well as supporting your teammates,” said Yerosvek. 

This season Yerosvek is looking forward to the time before games where her and her teammates get to hang out, playing Dunwoody, and senior night. 

“I’m excited for the pregame time, like hanging out because we would always play volleyball before, I’m excited for the Dunwoody game and I’m excited for senior night,” said Yerosvek. “And I’m pretty excited for all the games to be honest.”

Junior, Morgan Pratt (‘24) shares how this season will look different than previous seasons.

“My experience on the lacrosse team has been pretty good. I played the past two years, but it was with different coaches, so it was a lot different,” said Pratt. “I feel like this season could go either way because the new coaches are definitely wanting to actually teach us how to play the sport which is different from previous years, but they also are a lot more intense, so I feel like that could be good and bad for this season. I don’t think we’re going to do that well because we have a very small team, but I do think the coaches will help us improve a lot this year.”

Along with adjusting to different coaches this season, Pratt also shares her feelings toward the new practice schedule.

“I actually hated [morning practice] at first, but I don’t really mind it now because I have so much time [to do things] after school. Yesterday, I had so much time to do homework, which was so nice, but I don’t like practice starting at 4:30 instead of 3:30,” said Pratt.

Along with the players and coaches, there is a lot more that goes into the lacrosse season behind the scenes which the teacher sponsor, Hannah Postema took on this year.

“I have no past lacrosse experience. My only experience with lacrosse is I had friends who played,” said Postema. “However, I’ve taught a lot of students who play and I wanted them to not lose out on being able to play the sport at school just because lacrosse tends to not be a very popular sport here in the South. And being a girl’s sports team I wanted them to have their team not be overlooked.” 

Postema shares her role in the girls’ lacrosse team as the teacher sponsor. 

“I think it does differ depending on the sport that you have. For lacrosse, I’m lucky enough to have a really supportive Booster Club, and they have hired community coaches,” said Postema. “What that means is I can learn the sport at my own pace. I am not in charge of running their practices, though I am billed as head coach or in that sense like I arrange games. I have to be there for games, for practices and take care of a lot of the administrative stuff that goes with it. I also need to be certified in first aid and CPR so I can keep the girls safe if something happens. It’s kind of like being a really involved club sponsor.”

Postema shares how the new coaches are bringing a lot of experience to the team, coaching new players along with experienced players.

“Both of our coaches are really experienced with working with absolute novice players and [also] very experienced players. Our head community coach herself started playing lacrosse only as a freshman in high school; she hadn’t played before then. Which is not what you would think of someone who is taking on a second job to coach a sport,” said Postema. “She learned lacrosse her freshman year of high school and has not stopped playing it since. I think they’re really adaptive and they care so much about having the girls play well, and most importantly everyone playing safely.” 

This season, Postema is excited to see the team come together and form an amazing bond, despite the players being from different grade levels.

“From watching the girls at practice I think that they are improving rapidly,” said Postema. “I think that the team itself had a lot of seniors that graduated last year so they lost a huge part of them, but now they are coming together again. Rebuilding those bonds of a team and finding new ways to bring notice and respectability to the sport; they’re definitely going to be able to do that this year.”