Lax Day

Elizabeth started playing lacrosse in early April.  This is the first year that our town has fielded a girls lacrosse team and the boys league is brand new as well.  On the girls' side, there is only one team, grades 3 through 8.  Most of the players are between 5th-8th grade.  Elizabeth is really enjoying it and while she's not very good, she tries hard, she's fast, and she never runs out of gas.

Last Sunday was Lacrosse Day, a jamboree-like day of lacrosse games held on the fields of one of the local schools.  Elizabeth's team was scheduled to play two games but on Thursday, we got the word that only the 5th-8th graders would be allowed to play for safety reasons.  The other towns were bringing their 7th-8th grade teams, and it just wasn't safe for the smaller girls to play.  To say that Elizabeth was disappointed is the ultimate understatement - she was ripped and even threatened not to go to the game.  I told her that she had to go to support her teammates, do warm ups with them, etc.  After dropping her off, I stopped to talk to a couple of moms - and by the time I circled back to her team, she was wearing a huge smile. Because her coach was coordinating the Lacrosse Day, she was not coaching the game - and someone forgot to tell the assistant coach that the little girls couldn't play.  Much to our surprise, she started!!  I have to say, it was quite amusing to see her on the field - you could hear the opposing players asking her how old she was, but they were all very friendly (although they certainly didn't go easy on her).  She played her little heart out - running hard, playing defense, etc.  We were so proud of her.  And even though she was so much smaller than the other girls, it never occurred to me to be worried or nervous for her, because she wanted to play so badly.

Cell phone shot from game one.  That is not an optical illusion.  The defender really is that much bigger than Elizabeth.

My camera malfunctioned in the first game, so I really only have pictures from the second one.  But believe me when I tell you the girls on the first team were much bigger. 

Always right in the thick of things. 

When Lee and I looked through these pictures, we just couldn't decide which ones we liked the best, so we posted a bunch of them.  We like the action shots of her, obviously, but really like the ones that show how tiny she is in comparison to the girls they were matched up against!

What I truly love about all of these girls playing together is how well they get along - and how they treat even the little ones like equals.  An 8th grader (and star of the team) made sure that Elizabeth had eye black, just like the big girls.