What an insane day full of Lacrosse! Nervous as I didn’t have much time to prepare I was so glad that my group of under 12’s were so keen and eager to learn the sport. With such a variety of abilities, some players playing for a year and some being confident enough to be able to play in a tournament after only having one week of training experience. With no one really knowing what was to be expected of such a young group and a very new group of players who some haven’t even met before, there were a variety of personalities instantly, some being the team clowns and some very quiet and just eager to learn something new.

Everyone was trying hard, eager to impress during the training session to be able to start in the first game. The first game starts and gets under way, and the girls got off to a shaky start as the rules were still unclear to some, yet they say that you learn while doing and by the end of the day they can all proudly call themselves lacrosse players. Cobham who are very well known for their lacrosse were the girl’s opponents to start off some players careers and I was really shocked and proud at the same time to see everyone already passing the ball and standing strong against a team that have been playing together for a year.

Already using skills that we were doing in training we went into the second half down 4-2, yet no one seemed disheartened, if anything they felt even more confident and wanting to get into the next half fighting as the game was still very winnable for these girls. They ended up giving Cobham a run for their money and I was proud to be their coach after that performance even though they lost 6-4 with one of our goals being ruled out after the whistle, none of the players should have been upset with that result against a good side.

We then went into our second training session where they were focusing on picking the ball up while chasing after it to start an attack; and they all performed it in the hardest match they will play against the New Stars. Even though this New Stars team were playing the same length of time as the Cobham team, they were a lot better. Yet this just made the under 12 Cougars more determined to go out and prove themselves as a team to be feared. With great battling and fighting spirit going on throughout the entire pitch, in attack, defence and midfield we went into the half only down 4-3 against a very good side. All the girls went back and took my feedback on and used it exactly how I wanted and gave me 110% effort as well and it was a heart-breaking defeat only losing 8-7 against a strong team. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of under 12 girls to help become the great lacrosse players that I know they can be, and I wish them all the best.