Sports
BHHS Girls Lacrosse a Work in Progress
Normans' head coach Kate Marks talks about the young program.
Lacrosse is said to be one of the fastest growing sports in the country and at Beverly Hills High School, Kate Marks is trying to make sure that the girls program keeps pace.
Now entering her second year as head coach, the team went 3-12-1 last season. The Normans had won just five matches in the two previous seasons—the program's first two years in the field.
But Marks is confident that BHHS girls lacrosse is headed in the right direction.
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"We have potential," Marks said. "We are a younger team and we're hoping to build on some of the success we had at the end of the season and carry that into the summer and eventually next spring."
In 2004, the New York native came to the West Coast to take a position as a guidance counselor at Huntington Park High School in Southeast Los Angeles. Marks, who played lacrosse at American University in Washington D.C., coached the girls team at nearby Manual Arts High School, and later was encouraged to develop a program at Huntington Park.
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"Starting a program is tremendously difficult—there are all of the organizational things—but just getting enough players to try out and want to give a new sport a chance can be the biggest difficulty," Marks said. "Many of the schools in the area did not have exposure...lacrosse was certainly something completely foreign to them.''
The challenges at Beverly are just as great.
"We've got a long way to go before we're at the level of some of the teams in our league, like Redondo," Marks said. "But we have been getting more girls from crossover sports like volleyball and soccer and the more talent we have, the closer we'll get to the competition."
Many area schools do not have lacrosse teams so BHHS is a member of the Bay League, which includes powerhouses such as Redondo Union, Mira Costa and Palos Verdes. The competition makes for a difficult climb. Last season, Redondo advanced to the U.S. Lacrosse CIF Southern Section championship game, losing to defending champion Los Alamitos.
"The proximity of the schools in the South Bay lends them to having more opportunities to play with each other and we're not very close to them," Marks said. "Our school is new to the league and our inexperience has shown so far."
Senior center Judy Nazari and junior midfielder Dillan Watts return following strong seasons in which they both received All-Bay League Honors. Junior midfielder Halle Beeson will also add depth to the incoming team.
Marks holds summer workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is coaching players on the fundamentals of catching and passing the ball, as well as how to cradle the ball and improve stick handling.
The team is a work in progress and Marks remains optimistic.
"Last year was frustrating. We were close in a lot of games, but did not put together enough complete efforts," Marks said. "We ended on a good note and as we get better, the sport will become more popular here and we'll be off and running."