Photo from wcupagoldenrams.com
Last week, I spoke with fifth-year defender Molly Reinhart and fourth-year goalie Julianne Clemens of the West Chester Lacrosse team about their upcoming season. This week, I had the chance to catch up with the head coach of the lacrosse program here at West Chester, Ginny Martino.
Martino is hoping for the chance to return to the National Championship game for the 11th time in her career. As the longest-tenured coach at West Chester, as well as in the PSAC, Martino has led the lacrosse program to two national championship crowns and 13 conference titles, all in 22 seasons. Her coaching record is currently sitting at 333–77, which happens to be seventh place in all levels of NCAA lacrosse. In the 2018 season, Martino coached the Golden Rams to an undefeated season and a PSAC championship before leading the team to the NCAA title game in 2019.
I asked her about the recent Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) rankings released near the beginning of February:
Q: West Chester was just recently ranked fifth in the IWLCA Division II preseason poll. Considering the rankings can be updated, how do you feel about that placement? Do the players pay attention to these sorts of things?
A: We live by the motto that it does not matter where you begin, all that matters is where you end up. You cannot find yourself too elated or too upset by the pre-season polls, as it is simply a predictor. Everyone still needs to play their games. We focus on what we can control and take one game at a time. If we do that, and keep improving with each and every game, we will be exactly where we want to be at the end of the season.
We also discussed the team’s current practice situation:
Q: How has the team been preparing ever since PSAC announced there would be sports in the spring? Do you know if/when in-person practices would begin?
A: On Monday, we will begin our fifth week of practices. Things are going very well, and it has just been incredible to be together again on the field playing lacrosse again! We are hoping that we can all continue to stay safe and have a successful season!
This echoed the same sentiment shared by Clemens last week, when I asked her how excited she was for the upcoming season:
“I’m extremely excited. The team and I have been waiting for almost a year to even touch the field…”
The first game of the season for WCU lacrosse is on March 17, when they travel to Shippensburg University to take on the Raiders. For more information on the lacrosse team and all of the other programs here at West Chester, check out www.wcupagoldenrams.com.
Tyler Grace is a fourth-year economics and finance major. TG885739@wcupa.edu