Roughly a year after the program was founded, the Owensboro High School girls’ lacrosse team made history Saturday when they played their first ever home game at Rash Stadium.
While they took a 12-0 loss against Evansville Reitz, head coach Carl Fehrenbacher said it was still a momentous occasion and is a great start, not just for their team, but to implant roots for other programs nearby. The next closest Kentucky high school team is in Bowling Green, and beyond that are teams in the Louisville area.
“The fact that we’re even here is a great testament to how the game is growing and expanding,” he said. “I would not be surprised if in five years or so we’d be competing for the Daviess County title.”
With no other teams currently competing locally, the schedule for Owensboro is largely comprised of teams from Evansville — much like the OHS boys’ team. Fehrenbacher is hopeful the sport will continue to grow and expects it to soon be sanctioned as a varsity sport rather than only competing as clubs.
“Both states are on the verge of making them true varsity sports,” he said. “I see it only getting bigger as the years go on.”
Still, he admits it will take time. Even with his team, they are still working through the growing pains of learning the basics. The girls’ team was only able to scrimmage last year before finally getting a handful of games on a schedule this season.
“It’s been a big learning curve,” he said. “There’s a lot of fundamentals that take a lot of time. I told the girls this year that the only difference between last year’s girls and this year’s is they’ve had the stick for literally one more year.”
Fehrenbacher said many of the techniques are still foreign to the girls, but he said they are eager to learn.
“They have a huge desire to get better,” Fehrenbacher said. “They’ve been asking for more practice and longer practice. There’s been no shying away from trying to soak up and absorb as much as they can. They’ve been really trying hard to get better on their own as well as at practice. I see a willingness to try something new, especially being on the ground floor of something.”
Even in the short season so far this year, he said they’ve shown improvements. They played Reitz earlier in the year and though it was a lopsided score again Saturday, he was happy with their effort.
“We’re taking those little strides,” he said. “They are seeing the little things they have to do not only in practice but also getting those fundamentals down on their own.”
Going forward, Fehrenbacher said they don’t really have specific goals and are instead focused on continuing to get better each day.
“We want to just to see progress and to be competitive,” he said. “Not to win every game, but to know that when you walk out there, especially against teams that have our experience level, on any given day you should beat them. Maybe they’ll beat you, but you put in that extra effort and that extra work you should have a greater chance of making that happen.”
Owensboro has two more home games this season. They play Thursday and then again on May 7, with both games at Rash Stadium.
