Coach Riso Prepares Big Red LAX for Next Level

There isn't a time of the school year when Kimberly Riso isn't coaching a sport at Glen Cove High School. She's the head coach of the junior varisty girls' soccer team in the fall, assistant girls' varisty track coach in the winter, and the girls' junior varsity lacrosse head coach during the spring.

You would think she would want to relax and watch spring flowers bloom right now while she continues her health and physical education teaching duties at the high school. 

But, Riso said, lacrosse is her passion and that helps her solider on during the times when patience is paramount in order survive as a junior varsity coach.

And she is no stranger to the lacrosse life. She also excelled at the sport as a player by winning a national Division II title in 2001 with Long Island University C.W. Post.

"I love it," said Riso, who has been playing sports since the third grade. "Sometimes, it's more frustrating, but I bring a lot of coaching experience, which helps."

Unlike most sports in which athletes have been playing for years and already have a solid skill set, Riso has to teach the game's fundamentals to most of her players who are new to lacrosse. For the early part of the year, Riso said, this forces her to keep everything simple.

"It's very basic; there aren't a lot of strategies," Riso said of her early season coaching philosophy. "I do reinforcing skills and rules. I do not teach strategies until the sixth or seventh week."

Meanwhile, she noted that Big Red will get by on conditioning and sheer athletic ability. 

"They're very athletic girls," she said. "They come in good shape — from playing other sports — and have the athletic ability to make it an easy transition."

Leading Glen Cove this season is sophomore attacker Megan O'Connell, midfielders Kayla Basile and Lauren Dwyer, and defender/midfielder Briana Moglia.

Riso's next challenge is to figure out when to substitute her athletes—something that the girls don't always understand, but their coach needs to do in order to ensure a fresh crop of players are on the field.

"I have girls that don't sub out. They go 40 or 50 minutes," Riso said with a laugh. "I know the girls, I have been teaching them, and I know them well enough to know when to take them out. They get mad, and ask me why I took them out, and I tell them because they've been running for 20 minutes straight."

The season looks promising for the JV Big Red, according to Riso, as she continues to prepare her girls to play at the next level.  

And so far the team is off to a great start. 

Glen Cove crushed Malverene East Rockaway, 14-5, in its first game of the season last week. The team will travel to Florida during Spring Break to play three games and two scrimmages at Disney's World Wide of Sports.

To learn more information about Big Red sports, go to glencove.k12.ny.us/athletics/default.asp.