Sidney Pinkston

Courtesy of Sidney Pinkston

As spring comes around, so does lacrosse season. This season brings a lot of new players, as well as a new coach. Nat Roten is navigating her first year coaching.

“I’m at every practice I can be at, I go to the team events when I can, and show up for [the team] in every way possible to let them know I care about them and their program. I’ll be their biggest supporter if it means this team will grow and build,” Roten said.

New players are focusing on improving their cradling skills on the field (back and forth wrist/arm movement to keep ball in the pocket), and off the field they want to become better teammates and continue to stay in shape. Green days are a way for players to continue to practice, while it’s off-season.

“I went to the green days because I had never played lacrosse before,” freshman Eliza Wilson said.

One of the primary leaders of this year’s green days was senior captain Christina Carter. Throughout the summer, fall, and winter there were practices held to keep the team ready for the upcoming season. Green days can help anyone, but new players to lacrosse tend to utilize the opportunity to practice with the team. They work on the basic fundamentals while improving their chemistry with the team.

“Green day’s are helpful because we can work on skills that people may be struggling with but do not have time to fix during the regular season practice,” Carter said.

Another way players apply knowledge to lacrosse is through playing other sports (such as field hockey) and finding ways to compare the two sports.

“Since field hockey and lacrosse are both played on the same field, you can take the knowledge about spacing and cutting from one sport to another,” Carter said.

Carter and a lot of the new players have played field hockey in the fall. The sports can be compared because they both share the same field and are stick-to-ball.

As the players find themselves making season long goals, so does Coach Nat Roten.

Coach Nat first heard about the coaching opportunity from wearing a GMU lacrosse shirt at a nearby Planet Fitness. The JV coach noticed her, and offered her a position. Coach Nat would describe herself as the “go with the flow” type, with that she accepted.

“If I had gone to a slightly different gym, wore a different shirt, or even gone at a slightly different time I would’ve never bumped into him. From there I interviewed and accepted the position pretty blindly, if I’m honest,” Roten said.

She wasn’t looking to be a coach, but as the opportunity came her way she was able to navigate herself through it.

“I want to bring skill to the team. I want to make good players great and have you guys work together,” Roten said.

But skill isn’t the only thing she’s looking to bring. Coach Nat finds it important to not only lead the team to success but also to make sure she’s someone for her players to look up to.

“I’ve worked with kids/adolescents for over 3 years and I know how important it is to be a good role model for them. Sometimes kids have to go home to very adult issues, so if I can be the one person for them that is some kind of guiding light I would do it in a heartbeat,” Roten said.

Finally, she finds it important to also teach us life lessons through coaching the team.

“It’s why I’m adamant that [athletes] aren’t late to games/practices (time management), pick up the field (responsibility), jv watches varsity and varsity watches jv (being a team player and supporting something bigger than just yourselves), letting me know when they can’t make a practice or game (communication), making some practices tough on [the team] so they see that putting in hard work and dedication can pay off,” Roten said.

The results of her coaching is clear as Hayfield Girls Lacrosse beat South County for the first time in history.

Coach Nat prioritizes being a role model who leads the team through the chaos of highschool and adolescents. Not only that but she sees the potential and making the team grow and continue to make history (as done versus South County).