FHS Coach Changes Culture of Girls Lacrosse

Some teams might find finishing the lacrosse season just above .500 at 7-5 disappointing. But Fairfax High Rebel girls’ lacrosse coach Rachel Shafer said her team is moving its way up the ladder in the extremely competitive Liberty District.

“It’s promising because we keep getting better every single year,” said Shafer regarding the team’s first winning season in more than five years. “And our JV program was one of the strongest we’ve had in a while. We’re trying to pave our mark in the Liberty District and we’re heading in the right direction.”

The Rebels, led by senior captains Jesse Colligan, Katie Derrick and Paulina Tammaro, started the 2012 campaign on fire at 4-2. Fairfax would split the final six games at 3-3 before Marshall knocked the girls out of the district tournament in the first round.

“We struggled in years past and we have realty tough competition in Liberty,” Shafer said. “We’ve kind of been able to end up in the top portion of the bottom. We just need to figure out what to do to break into those top teams.”

The third-year coach added that the girls found strong chemistry this season and should hopefully “compete with the Madisons and Langleys’ in the near future." How has Shafer motivated her team? Well, she said her mission to “change the culture of girls lacrosse at Fairfax” and getting players more interested in lacrosse is the first step. 

“Travel lacrosse is really big now. This past year we had eight girls playing travel,” Shafer said. “Last year we had one and the year before that we only had one again. For the first time in three years, we had a player make a player make First-team All-District: Samantha Bryan. She had a huge season… every game she played in, she was a huge-impact player.”

The junior midfielder is just one of 15 members representing the youth of the Rebel team. Shafer said she is excited that so many players will return next season. But, with the new rule change this season, which allows coaches to hold 10 full practices (called Green Days) during the off-season, the coach hopes to see those players even sooner.

“Our junior class is large and I’m hoping they all come back ready next year,” she said. “We have two great freshmen (Olivia McGrath & Meg Robertson) that are going to help us out in coming years.”

Perhaps the most exciting change in 2012 occurred when Shafer took her team by plane to Clearwater, Fla. for Spring Break. The girls – some of which stepped on a plane for the first time – shared a special week together playing lacrosse, hanging out and building chemistry with one another, Shafer said.

“That was huge – it’s trying to change the culture, and 14 to 15 girls came down to Florida with us,” Shafer said. “It’s just being exposed more to the game. I told them ‘I did this in high school and was lucky enough to travel and some of my best memories were from that.’”

Shafer is a coach who shows great passion for her sport, but more importantly holds faith in her players and cares for them both on and off the field. She has found ways to inspire and motivate the girls by creating a point system as a way to provide healthy competition within the team. The girls earn points for playing another sport during the school year and/or for playing lacrosse for a club or travel team.

“Lacrosse is pretty much basketball but on a bigger field and outside,” Shafer said. “I found that players who play basketball in the past are steps ahead of everybody else because they get the movement. They’re in high school, young so why not play as many sports as they can.”

While basketball is not the only sport the coach encourages her athletes participate in, she believes the footwork and offensive strategies are very similar. Yet the most crucial advantage of playing multiple sports is the enhancement of ‘sports IQ,’ said Shafer. She believes in ‘the underdog’ and prefers forcing opponents to play to the Rebels’ style, while her girls control the tempo of the contest.

“The beauty of high school sports is anybody can win in any given game,” Shafer said. “We can control ourselves and work hard, not give up and give it our best shot.”

Shafer became excited when asked what her proudest moment and what she took from the 2012 season.

“The McLean game,” she said. “We were down for the majority of the game. At one point we were down three – maybe two - goals and we scored two goals in under a minute, tied the game with 36 seconds left and we came back and won by two (in OT) and the game was over.”

“We won two or three games in the district and we want to keep increasing that. I say ‘let’s stop talking about our goals and let’s actually accomplish them.’”