TSSAA is sanctioning girls lacrosse for the 2024-25 school year, meaning that it will officially become a varsity sport at Bearden next year.
The team has continued to expand despite the fact that few played the sport as children; however, nearly all of them have experience in other sports.
When players join the team, they bring their physical and mental skills learned from their previous sport with them.
Junior lacrosse player Jordan Palmer used to play softball, but once a Bearden lacrosse team was formed, she decided to make the switch.
“I needed a change,” Palmer said. “I was doing the same thing for the majority of my life and I just didn’t love it anymore.
“I had friends who were playing lacrosse; I just thought I should try something new, and I really love it.”
The Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to play Farragut on Thursday night. Officials are keeping a close eye on the weather, but the game has not been canceled as of publication time.
They play Seymour on Tuesday and CAK on Thursday.
Softball and lacrosse have some similarities; these similarities have allowed her to immediately succeed on the field. Many sports have transferable skills such as speed, quickness, and footwork that allow athletes to pick up lacrosse quickly.
“Hand-eye coordination is probably the biggest,” Palmer said. “With a bat and a ball, you have to be able to make contact and in lacrosse with a stick you have to be able to maneuver it when you catch a ball.”
Another sport that has transferable skills is basketball. Sophomore Madeline Councill played both at the same time.
“I have played lacrosse my whole life,” Council said. “It hasn’t always been my favorite sport, but it has always been a sport I really enjoy and I decided I loved lacrosse more than basketball.
“I think defensively I was very strong in basketball and I transferred that over to lacrosse. The footwork and also the energy that I brought to the team in basketball, I bring to lacrosse as well.”
As a defensive player, Councill took her strength in basketball and put it toward lacrosse.
“My principles in defense really help me in lacrosse because I play midfield, and I have to play attack and defense,” she said. “Attack in lacrosse is very similar to basketball because you have to slide and always be there to help.”
Senior Megan Hacker was a gymnast before suffering an arm injury that ended her gymnastics career. She still wanted to play a sport and found that lacrosse would not re-aggravate the issue.
“Lacrosse was a good thing I could just hop in and fall to,” she said. “The hard work definitely is what transferred for me. I learned how to work on myself because gymnastics is more of an individual sport, so I pick up on things easily and can control my body.”
Another fundamental of lacrosse and gymnastics is running. The endurance training from other sports allows new players to be able to already be up to the stamina benchmark.
“Knowing how to run is important,” Hacker said. “We used to have a running trainer that would come teach us how to run for vault, so I definitely know how to run in lacrosse.
“Footwork is different in gymnastics and lacrosse, but the ability to maneuver your body stays the same.”