A year without regrets

GBHS junior and varsity lacrosse player Allie Burger, above, hugs GBHS junior Shelbi Tooley after their narrow victory over league rival Oak Ridge High School.

The Granite Bay High School varsity girls’ lacrosse team is in an almost surreal situation this spring. Compared to this time last year, it is barely recognizable.
   The Lady Grizzlies of 2010 are a force to be reckoned with this season in the Sacramento Valley League. They currently sit in second place behind St. Francis High School, which has thus far been the team’s only loss.
   But what makes this accomplishment so incredible?
   The GBHS lacrosse team of 2009 was on the opposite end of the spectrum, winning just a single game over the entire course of the season. However, under new coaches Kristin Marshall and Kait Brzozowski, the girls have blossomed into a power in league play and beyond.
   Just a mere three years ago, when the current seniors were freshmen, lacrosse was not a sport sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation and could only be played as a club sport through the school.
   According to senior team captain Erica Postell, who has played lacrosse at GBHS since her freshman year, the team and program has progressed a lot in her four years.
   “We were a club team my freshman year, (and not) even CIF yet,” Postell said. “I think we actually (had) a pretty good season, but that’s when all the teams were just starting out.”
   As lacrosse has grown as a sport over the past few years in the Sacramento area, the teams have become much stronger as a result. The transition from being a club sport to a school sanctioned one proved to be challenging for GBHS, which won just one game in the first two years.
   Now, under the guidance of Marshall and Brzozowski, both former high school and college lacrosse players from the East Coast, the team has developed into a strong overall program, according to Brzozowski.
   “We started training them in September and came out here four times a week,” Brzozowski said. “We’re out here five to six days a week playing lacrosse now that we’re in season.”
   Postell says that the long preseason work has definitely paid off, however.
  “We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and stick skills. Before, we didn’t really know how to do anything (like that),” Postell said.
   With eight months of training underneath them, the girls have developed a strong bond with each other, reflecting positively in their strong play.
   “We’re a lot closer than we used to be and we all know each other and know how each other works,” sophomore Nicole Carter said. “(It) helps us work through plays better and communicating.”
   Brzozowski also said that the girls have shown a lot of commitment to the team, helping to strengthen the bond.
   “Our team is successful because when they work together they work really well and they’re very respectful of us and listen to what we tell them to do,” Brzozowski said.
   The key to such quick progress has been the new coaching. Both Postell and Carter agree that having the young but experienced coaches has made a huge difference in developing the team.
   “They know what they’re doing and they’re both really committed to the team,” Carter said.
   Postell says that having coaches who actually played the game has been a difference maker for the team.
   “It’s really good to have coaches who played in high school and show us how the game should be played,”
Postell said.
   Brzozowski and Marshall have a bigger goal, however. They hope to spread the game to an even broader group of kids, beyond GBHS. They are currently two of about ten or fifteen coaches in the Sacramento area trying to introduce the sport to more youth, even though it is already the fastest growing sport in the area.
   Unfortunately, the sport isn’t growing fast enough and there is still no playoff format for the girls to participate in once the regular season concludes. Instead, Brzozowski and Marshall are trying to put together a scrimmage day similar to a playoff format to compromise for what the CIF has yet to do.
   “They don’t have a post season, which is really sad because the girls don’t have anything to looks forward to,” Brzozowski said. “But the play day we’re trying to put together would be kind of like a playoff day, which will be really nice.”
   With so much to look forward to in the future, it seems like the fairy tale of the GBHS girls’ lacrosse team won’t be ending any time soon.