Brewer High School is Starting a Girl’s Lacrosse Club

Brewer High School currently has a Boy's Lacrosse Team and right now, thanks to the efforts of Riley Umel, Brooklyn Fick and Jordan Tibbetts  and the support of the Brewer High School Administration a Girl's Lacrosse Club has formed.

According to Brewer High School Athletic Director Dave Utterback, "Umel, Fick and Tibbets did all of the work to have a team ready for the spring of 2020, and covid had other plans. So credit to them for sticking with it. If this takes hold long term, we can credit those three directly for the new sport, much like we credit the girls who founded Volleyball back in 2018."

I posed a series of questions to Utterback Thursday morning and here are his responses

Q -  How many girls are involved in the new lacrosse club?
A - It will fluctuate between 13 players and ideally 16. We are still in need of a goalie, so the girls and I continue to recruit the hallways and lunches for a goalie!

Q -  How often are you practicing?
A - We are practicing 3 times per week and hopefully will add 1 or 2 games per week. We felt it was important to not go 5 days a week so the girls can still balance work, athletics, social life and school.

Q - Who are the coaches of the club?
A - I am coaching the team along with the newly hired girls soccer coach, Phil Turmelle. I had told the girls two years ago if they had enough kids to play, we would find a way for them to play. I have zero lacrosse experience, other than teaching the sport in PE. Coach Turmelle is someone the girls are very familiar and comfortable with, so on days I have an event to cover, Coach Turmelle will be able to take the practice and provide a meaningful growth opportunity for the girls.

Q  - Are you planning any scrimmages this year? If so when and against who?
A -We currently have four matches scheduled and would like about 6 more against local teams from the KVAC. We have Bangor home and away, we have scheduled a match at Nokomis/MCI and one at home against Houlton in late May.

Q -  Is the plan to have a MPA sanctioned team in the Spring of 2023?
A - Hard to tell. We need to have numbers to sustain this, and obviously me being the coach would make things difficult to make this a full time sport. Of the 13 committed girls playing, 7 are seniors. So we'd need a real spike in interest to prove this could sustain long term. There is no money in the budget for this currently, and we did not add any for next fiscal year.