By Madelyn Kalish

I started playing lacrosse when I was about 5 years old. After going to millions of games and sitting on the sidelines watching my sisters, I was beyond excited to get my first lacrosse stick. Lots of clinics and camps were completed in order to develop into the player I am today. I remember always being the only one that was left handed at these camps. Every time this happened, I was too shy to ask how to reverse whatever skill we were working on into my left hand, so I always did it right handed and then asked my sisters how to do it at home. Luckily, my shyness helped me develop a stronger non-dominant hand earlier than most.

Lacrosse truly runs in my family. My mom played lacrosse all through middle school and high school. Later, she got a scholarship to play at American University. After that, my mom coached at Villanova and Cornell. My aunt also played lacrosse at Penn. My sister Abby is following in my mom’s footsteps. Next year, she will play lacrosse at Bloomsburg. After all this background, my mom wanted to get us started in lacrosse as early as possible. She exposed us to the game very young and we love going to watch games together. For the last couple years, we have been going to the NCAA college lacrosse championships.

Currently, I play for the high school team. The actual season starts in March, but right now we have winter workouts and we are playing in an indoor winter league. In addition to playing for the school, I also play for a club team. Last year, I played for Brandywine Majors. However, recently the entire club had folded. Starting in the summer, I will play for Victory Lacrosse Club.

I have played almost every position at one point, but for a while now, I have been playing attack. My left handedness is very beneficial as a low attacker because I can feed from behind the net to my teammates strong outside hand. I have been taught to use this to my advantage because it sets me apart and adds variety to the team. I guess you could say that I made myself comfortable behind the goal and feeding and crease rolls have become my safety net. As much as I love to play attack, I have been playing midfield recently and I really like it. I still find myself behind the net all the time, even though this makes it a little harder for me to sprint back on defense. Part of the reason why naturally leaned towards playing attack is because always hated playing defense. However, playing midfield more made me realize how much I actually like it!

Lacrosse has been a part of me and my family for as long as I can remember. I like how it’s something that connects my sisters and I with my mom. Whether I am just having a catch in the backyard or my mom is standing on the sidelines coaching me, I have learned so much from her about the game. I always have so much fun when I’m out on the field with my teammates and I am beyond excited for the season coming up.