The past year marked the start of a momentous period in women’s sports at Greenwood. Not only did the existing teams have a very successful year with numerous championships and individual recognitions but the school also welcomed in its newest women’s sports team, lacrosse. 

History of the Game

Lacrosse is an “action-packed, fast-paced sport…” according to CBC kids. The sport where people run around throwing, catching, and shooting a hard rubber ball with a netted stick was originally a Native American sport but was adapted into European culture in the 1600s. 

In the 1800s the game began to be integrated into modern culture and has been on the rise ever since. By the 20th century, lacrosse was common at the collegiate and high school levels and club teams were becoming more and more common. Today lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S. and is the fastest growing sport in Kentucky. 

Greenwood’s Past 

While women’s lacrosse is new at Greenwood, the same cannot be said about the men’s game. Up until 2016, Greenwood was a large lacrosse presence in South Central Kentucky, even taking home a state championship in 2011. The team is embracing this history and fusing it into the new women’s team by wearing the old championship shirts out and about in public. 

Struggles With the State

Even though lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in Kentucky it is not a state-sanctioned sport. This means that it cannot be counted as a varsity sport like soccer or basketball. Certain perks come with being a varsity sport such as school funding and transportation. Since lacrosse is categorized as a club they don’t get any of these perks. Even though it is difficult to get a team started they have had wonderful support from the administration and other teams in Bowling Green. 

Community and Culture

  One silver lining of having such a small lacrosse community in Bowling Green and statewide is they are a very tight-knit group. All of the teams support one another so they can grow the game. The Greenwood team was welcomed with open arms into the Bowling Green High School team’s practices while they began their search for a coach of their own. 

BGHS’s coach, Andrew Wulff, has been helping the team develop beginner skills which are crucial in building a successful team. There are only two players on the team, Captains Ellie “Rams” Ramsing and Ellie “Vermont” Macdonald, who have played before. Taking this into account, the positive influence of a trained coach and a team full of comfortable players has been priceless. This ties into the goals of the team in the long run as Macdonald summarized, “We hope the team continues throughout the years and creates a great bond.” 

Baby Steps

As one might imagine building a team is not an easy task to take on. The foundation of the team began being built at the end of Summer, 2019. At first, Macdonald and her parents approached the administrators at the school after moving here from Vermont and discovered that Greenwood didn’t have a lacrosse team. 

The first step was to see if there was enough interest to proceed to the monstrous task of building a team. There was a sizeable amount of interest at the first meeting so the school proceeded to the next step. That’s where the Macdonald and Ramsing families came into play. 

Since the highest level that the team could be recognized as was a club, it fell on parents and students to organize the team, find fundraising opportunities, and research everything the team would need. Thus the next 4 months of jumping through hoops and focusing on minute details initiated. 

To convince the school’s site-based committee to approve lacrosse as a club, the team set up a clinic with Centre Womens’ head coach, Monica Scott. On Sunday, October 13, Scott ran a free two-hour clinic at Lovers Lane Soccer Complex where 13 potential players showed up. After that very successful clinic, the school’s committee approved the petition for a team on October 15. Following the approval of the club, the Ramsings and Macdonalds got to work. 

“It was difficult at first. It seemed like nothing was going our way and we were starting at ground zero with a balance in our bank account of $0.00,” Ramsing explained. “But it was worth it. Every day we saw progress, we posted the coaching position and began advertising. We saw amazing support from local businesses that were there cheering us on. After we started getting out into the community we saw so much excitement and it gave us motivation.” 

Over the past 3-4 months, every day the team has been working towards the fast-approaching start of the season in mid-February. Starting in November the team had weekly preseason practices where the Captains would teach the players the fundamentals of the sport. In January the team had their first Greenwood only indoor practice with potential coaches Dionna Zorici and Mr. Davis, the faculty sponsor for the club. 

To date, the team has 9 games scheduled and is working to schedule more. The team has accomplished a lot in the past 4 months and is starting to make an impact locally. With the season fast approaching the main goal of the team is to continue to grow the game of girls lacrosse in Bowling Green and the South in general.