Women's Lacrosse Clinic Photo Gallery

Courtesy of Worcester State Sports Information 

WORCESTER, Mass.-- On Monday, March 31, the Worcester State women's lacrosse team hosted a Worcester City Girls Lacrosse Clinic for several public schools from around the city at John Coughlin Memorial Field.

The Worcester State squad reinforced and taught a variety of skills to roughly 30 varsity and junior varsity level girls lacrosse players at various stations around the field before ending the workout with a team scrimmage. This year marked the second consecutive season that the women's lacrosse team has hosted a skills clinic for the Worcester Public Schools.

"The girls were really looking forward to coming again this year after they had a lot of fun working with the Worcester State players last year," said head coach of Doherty High James Arthur. "The girls learn so much and love this clinic."

Stations included an area where girls could sharpen their shooting skills, work on dodging opponents, conditioning, passing and draw controls.

The goalkeepers even had one on one sessions with their older counterparts where they learned about clearing and stopping the ball in all quadrants of the net.

"The (Worcester State) girls were extremely helpful," said Doherty senior and captain Julia Snow. "They helped get us prepared for our upcoming season and showed us how the game is played at the college level."

Worcester State sophomore Jackie Connors, who helped run the draw controls station had nothing but positive things to say about the clinic.

"It was a fun filled day with lots of drills and everyone was out there supporting each other, having fun and it was a really great team atmosphere," said Connors. "Everyone came together, got better individually and we were able to help them prepare for their next opponent, Hopedale."

Snow said she took a lot away from the clinic, especially when her teammates went around to the different stations.

"I liked participating in the scrimmage the best and working on how to get ground balls, which is something we really need to work on as a team," said Snow.

Worcester State junior Angela Grassetti and sophomore Katelyn Murphy discussed the fundamentals of defensive placement and communication when talking about playing on the back line.

"We started out with a simple switching technique to get the right placement and we stressed about screaming 'BALL!' when covering a defender," said Grassetti.

"We talked about how important it is to keep their sticks up and how you don't just communicate on defense, but on offense as well. Even after asking them whether they played offense or defense during the drill, we tried to explain that you're always playing on defense, even if you are on offense. "

Senior Vicki O'Brien, sophomore Amanda Pruyn and freshman Alaina Martin all worked the shooting station. Starting from the basics of the shooting motion without a ball, the participants warmed up to the different kinds of shots that they were able to practice.

"After we worked on helping them get power behind their shots, we started a feeding dril, so they could run and catch the ball before a shot," said O'Brien.

"We also worked on one-time shots, righty and leftie shots and the over the shoulder motion. They really liked (shooting) off the shoulder because it was different. They were really excited to learn that one."

O'Brien really enjoyed partaking in the scrimmage on the sidelines as one of the coaches after the girls were done going through the seven different stations.

"The scrimmage was so fun," said O'Brien. "The Worcester State girls got so into it; it was so competitive. We got the girls cheering and they looked like they were having so much fun with it. With us having fun coaching them, it made them want to have fun and play more competitively."

Grassetti played a different role than O'Brien as she was on the other side of the field along with Connors as an official.

"On the field when we blew the whistle, we would explain to them what they did wrong so they would understand what they couldn't do in a real game," said Grassetti.

Both girls mentioned that it was a learning experience all the way around for her team as well.

"We really learned a lot from explaining how do do things," said O'Brien. "After we were done talking about the different kinds of shots, we asked them what else they wanted to learn and the goalies wanted us to try to simulate real game conditions, so that they could take it to the next level."

"We are sometimes frustrated with the coaches, or if a drill doesn't work and we get mad at how its going, but when you're actually in that position it makes you realize that they are doing it to help us get better," said Grassetti. "We were able to do see that when we were the ones running the clinic."

O'Brien said that the clinic reinforced her aspirations to coach lacrosse at the high school level when she graduates from Worcester State.

"You forget what the high school perspective is because I've been out for four years now," said O'Brien. "Seeing these girls come in so young and they are ready to learn the game, its a different perspective learning how to coach someone who doesn't know the basics and then try to coach somebody who is more advanced."