Sophomore Grace Lodes is excited to be playing on the team for FHN’s first ever girl’s lacrosse season. Over the summer, she played around with some of her friends and was also able to learn about the sport by watching YouTube videos. With this being the first time girl’s lacrosse has ever been offered at FHN, coach Ryan Darks said that all of the girls started on the same level and he has seen great improvement from all of the girls. Lodes, along with the others, has been coachable and willing to learn.

“Her effort [stands out],” Darks said. “She comes out every day, she’s excited to play. She’s always having fun, which plays a big part, and then willingness to learn, which is all we ask of any of them.”

Lodes is excited to play lacrosse because the sport is new and something different. There are many girls who have previously played many different sports and are all coming together to make this new team work. There is an A-team and a B-team; Lodes made the A-team, or the upper level team.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Lodes said. “I think we’ll do pretty decent, you know. It’s not like we’re a bad team, but because we are new and everybody is new we are going to be playing against teams that have been established for years so I think it’ll be interesting to see. But I think we do have a pretty good chance.”

Coach Darks is a physical education teacher at Hollenbeck Middle School. He started the program and played lacrosse both at Rockwood Summit High School for three years, and at Lindenwood University where their team won twice at conference. Darks has never coached lacrosse before, but he is excited to start the program and teach the girls the game.

“The coach, I like,” Lodes said. “He’s really funny. He explains things really well. He doesn’t just tell you to do it, he explains why you do it, and he goes through things fast enough that’s not boring but slow enough that you can comprehend what’s going on.”

Lodes feels comfortable throwing to a teammate and shooting a goal, and she feels that she’s getting better at catching. She said that she sees a lot of people on the team who are encouraging each other and she is excited to make new friendships with the girls on the team.

“I’m the most excited to just see how the games go,” Lodes said. “I’m really excited that because everyone is new, building the new friendships and  everything with people because you’re all coming from different sports background so we get to figure it out together and I think that’s really neat.”