Girls’ lacrosse now is an official varsity sport at North Atlanta High School.
While the girls on the first-year team are enthusiastic, it sometimes isn’t enough to win a reliable spot for practice.
On Feb. 10, the girls’ team relinquished the squishy green field in the middle of the school’s track for one of the other spring sports. Coach Marie Killory said that’s one of the challenges of starting a sport at a school where it hasn’t existed.
“We have six teams sharing one field,” Killory said. “It’s intense.”
Lacrosse is like a mix between soccer and football. Players use a stick to cradle a ball and fling it into nets to score points.
The sport is growing in popularity in the South. Killory said until recently lacrosse only existed in Atlanta’s exclusive private schools.
“They’re a tenacious group of girls,” Killory said of the team. “Some of them are taking it up for the first time.”
Killory is also learning. She’s an avid fan but has never played. The school is getting an assist from community coach Kara Siegert, who played for Towson University in Maryland.
Siegert said she came to Atlanta for an internship and decided to stay because of the growing popularity of lacrosse. Siegert said she can whip the team into shape as long as they’re hard-working athletes. The emphasis is on “work,” she said.
“That has been the biggest challenge, starting from ground zero and teaching the basics of the sport,” she said.
Asya Wilson, a junior, said she became interested in the sport after watching the Johns Hopkins University team practice across the street from her father’s house in Maryland. “I love it,” Wilson said. “I’ve even got a summer coach.”
Emerson Bouldin, a senior and co-captain of the soccer team, has lettered four years as a member of both the soccer and swim teams.
Senior Douglas Durham is co-captain the lacrosse and cross-country teams. He has lettered four years in cross-country.
Senior Muhammad Rasheed has qualified for the nationals in track and field for the last three years. He lettered in cross-country four years and served as co-captain of the team.