It’s midseason for spring sports and girls lacrosse is getting through their season with an early league record of 2-1. Led by new-to-Northwood coach Nathan Parr, the team is pushing to reach CIFs for the second time in a row.

For the past four years, the team has had to adapt to different coaching styles, as they’ve been coached by a new person each year, but there’s something special about Parr. He’s Northwood’s very own version of Ted Lasso—he’s never played lacrosse before.

“We love that about him,” captain senior Rachel How said. “He has the conditioning and the sportsmanship midsight down. He’s the motivation we need after tough games.”

Even though Parr might be in- experienced in the sport of lacrosse, his kind and compassionate personality coupled with his optimism and determination to lead makes him one of the best.

“Even when we win, even when we lose, we do it together,” How said. “It’s a team and you can’t do everything by yourself. The most important thing is to just be kind to one another and not blame anyone for mistakes made during a game.”

In past years, the team has struggled to rally after poorly-played first halves, but with Parr, comebacks are beginning to happen. While a couple of Northwood alumni help coach attack and defense, the new coach focuses on the girls’ conditioning as well as their mindsets.

“Attitude is everything,” Parr said. “And that’s not just a positive attitude. There’s a time and place to be mad or sad. But a lot of times we get lost in our heads and we gotta remember that there’s a bigger picture than just one bad half.”

With their most recent win against Laguna Hills High School, How and captain senior Amelia Wagner are pushing their team to achieve even greater things while working together as a team. With nine graduating seniors, the girls hope to continue to raise their win percentage and battle it out at the end of the year at CIFs.

“Everyone is at a different skill level,” Wagner said. “That’s one of the biggest challenges—learning to work together while still trying to individually get better.”

The team has played five games so far—both preseason and during League matches—dominating both Sage Hill High School and Rosary Academy with scores of 15-2 and 11-7 respectively. Junior Skylar Leung currently leads the team with most goals, scoring an average of 2 goals per match, while junior Jaycee Hendrickson leads on assists, averaging 2.5 per game.

“We take these games as an opportunity to work on everything that we’ve been practicing,” Wagner said. “I try to remind the team that wins aren’t guaranteed, but that we also are good enough to win against any team if we keep up our energy throughout the game.”

The team will have bi-weekly games until the end of April and have five home games left.

“It’s really nice to see Northwood supporting Northwood,” How said. “So come down to the turf and see why lacrosse is as fun as it is!”