The LSU women’s lacrosse club is back in business thanks to the relentless efforts of its student leaders.
After disbanding in 2010 due to lack of student interest, the club’s future looked bleak. That was when international relations and political science senior Kylee Rader, current club president, decided to take action.
“I saw that [Florida] had a team, so I thought, ‘Why can’t LSU?’” Rader said.
Rader contacted former club president Mary Condo to find out the steps to getting the club active again. That got her in contact with University Recreation Sports club coordinator Zach Wood.
Working closely with Wood and Condo, Rader began the process of resurrecting the women’s lacrosse club, which began by registering as a student organization in the Office of Student Life.
The team then had to operate independently from the University Student Recreational Complex for a year before being allowed to reapply to become a sanctioned sports club. This presented some challenges to the rebuilding effort.
“We almost had to start from scratch. [Many] of the girls had never played before,” Rader said. “Getting field time was tough. We had to fight with Quidditch [occasionally].”
Even after the Lady Tigers were reinstated as an official club sport in fall 2011, there were more obstacles to overcome.
The club was unable to find a coach until March, forcing Rader to take a player-coach role, something she does not advise anyone to attempt.
“Being a player-coach is not easy,” Rader said. “Some of the girls would struggle listening, probably because I wasn’t much older than them.”
Despite all of those hardships, the Lady Tigers finished their first season with a 3-4-2 record in the Texas Women’s Lacrosse League, one position out of the playoffs. That finish was achieved often while playing a man down or with no substitutions.
By working through the rough times of that first year, the Lady Tigers laid the organizational and personal groundwork for many seasons to come.
“We have a lot of freshmen,” Rader said. “They all have very sound fundamentals. … They will take care of [LSU Lacrosse] after I’m gone.”
The Lady Tigers will begin their pursuit of a playoff berth this weekend, traveling to Houston to face Rice and traditional powerhouse Texas A&M in their first matches of the season.
“The talent, teamwork and work ethic are there,” said biological chemistry junior Dru Cowan. “All we have to do is put it together.”
“We almost had to start from scratch.”
