Written By: Sakura Snyder, Staff Writer
STIRRING: The addition of a new coaching staff seems to bring a fresh start for the Girls Lacrosse team.
With spring sports rolling around, there seem to be great changes rapidly unfolding inside the teams involved on the Poly campus. This seems to especially hold true for the Girls Lacrosse team. The team now has a new main coach, Josiah Harrison, and an assistant coach with experience, Sofia Best. It is exciting to see what kind of history, expectations, and goals this coaching duo has for the upcoming season, especially because coaches play a significant role in shaping a team.
Coach Harisson’s first encounter with coaching was in 2021, for basketball. “My first-ever coaching experience was a win,” he explains. From there, he quickly fell in love with the career. This inspired him to continue descending along the coaching career path, into which he began gaining experience from mentoring different sports. Eventually, Coach Harrison was allowed to work as a main coach for this spring season of Poly Girls Lacrosse. However, lacrosse proved to be a form of uncharted territory, especially because he had already held a sense of familiarity with all of the previous sports he coached before.“At first I was scared,” he reveals. In the beginning, he was not sure about how to approach the team and season, especially because of his relative newness to the sport—but his mindset changed after tryouts occurred. “When I came out and saw that there were a lot of new girls [at the tryouts], I knew that I wanted to allow them to play,” he earnestly expresses. From then on, he knew that his focus for the season would be on “development.” By developing the girls for the next year, Coach Harrison strongly believes that he can also develop the team for the future of the program.
As for his overarching goals, Coach Harrison wants it “to be a season of learning, of memories, and learning how to be a better coach all around.” “That’s something I want to focus on,” he remarks. “Having a better understanding.”
Instead of meeting lacrosse through coaching, Coach Best met lacrosse through playing, right at Poly. “I played for 3 years and then was captain for 2 years, so I already had a sense of leadership with the girls on the team,” she explains. This leadership set her up for the following year—when she realized that the former head coach needed some help with guiding a growing team, so Coach Best “offered [herself] up for the [assistant coach] position. It helped me, previously being a player,” she stated. She decided to continue on the coaching trek into this season, and she has begun solidifying her thoughts about the position. One of her favorite parts of coaching is “getting to teach [both old and new girls] and see[ing] them grow to love the sport.” Her goal as an assistant coach for the season is for “everybody to have fun and enjoy playing. I want it to be a positive experience,” she firmly concludes.
Combining Coach Harrison’s desire to guide the team towards growth and learning as well as Coach Best’s steadfast commitment to the sport and positivity, the team is sure to see some good changes. The Poly Girls Lacrosse season officially begins on February 11th against King, so be sure to wish them luck and show support for their team from the stands. Go Bears!