For the first time in nearly three years, coaches and players with the Orillia Lady Kings house league lacrosse program hit the field at the West Orillia Sports Complex.
After being held off the field due to the pandemic, girls of all ages met with their teammates and coaches — many of whom played through the program themselves — before kicking off the season Monday evening.
“It’s so exciting to be back. There was so much unknown every year,” program coordinator Denise Lynch Lacroix told OrilliaMatters. “There’s nothing like a sports team for girls to work together, learn the importance of supporting each other, have some fun, and a little competition never hurt.”
With 12 teams running across four age groups, the program has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic peak of 16 teams. Nevertheless, Monday evening marked the return of a program that provides young women with the opportunity to play through house league, the tandem Lady Kings rep program, and beyond in post-secondary lacrosse programs.
Notably, Lynch Lacroix pointed out that most of the program’s coaches are women who got started in Orillia’s eight-week house-league program and now compete in the U19 rep program or at the university level in Canada or the United States.
“All of the rep players at these levels also play in the house league program, so they kind of help encourage and develop new players,” Lynch Lacroix said. “We are so lucky that almost all of our coaches are former house league players. It's almost all young people who've played through the system.”
Two such coaches are Brittney Marwick and Kayleigh Aitken.
Marwick just finished her first season playing for Trent University, and she said it’s exciting to see the program return.
“It’s really exciting,” she told OrilliaMatters. “It brings a lot of new players together to have a chance to learn the sport, and kind of learn from the more advanced players.”
“A couple of years ago, before COVID, I coached as well, so we're back to it,” Marwick said.
Aitken, who will begin a NCAA Division I career at University of Detroit Mercy this fall, said she began playing in the Lady Kings program at the U13 level, and stressed the importance of programs like the Lady Kings for young women.
“It's a way to bring a lot of the girls and female athletes together in a supportive environment,” she explained. “We often find ourselves compared to the guys a lot, and I think having house league and having our girls rep teams brings female athletes together in a way that we all deserve to be brought together.”
