Lebanon
Hannah Bunten has her rain jacket’s hood up and the front zipper pulled to her chin. She can’t see through her protective eyewear, which resembles a trendy pair of sunglasses, because of water droplets and condensation, but players cannot practice without eye protection, even if it’s not protecting the eyes. So Bunten wears the glasses on the tip of her nose, looking like a drenched Ben Franklin.
Student coach Julie Barber is in attendance under an umbrella and in a brand-new wheelchair with a protruding front wheel that helps distribute weight more evenly and makes the chair easier to roll. Izzy Peress had a jacket on, but it seemed to be soaking up water instead of repelling it, so 75 minutes into practice she’s wearing only a white T-shirt and looking utterly miserable.
“My hands are so numb, I can’t grip my stick,” Peress says.
“Don’t know what to tell you,” replies coach Sara Ecker, whose baseball cap is fully saturated and whose ponytail dangles wet and stringy down the back of her own soaking jacket.
“You should have brought a better jacket,” chirps Barber, safe under her umbrella, drawing a smile from Ecker, who’s not particularly happy with the turnout.
“I haven’t had so many players missing on vacation week in years,” she says. “We just don’t have the intensity, the hard work that we’ve had before.
“But we can’t afford to not practice. I’ve looked at the schedule, and I’m a little afraid we’re going to start 0-6.”
To that end, the Raiders practice defense and clears and then play 5-on-5 at one end of the field. The other end’s goal crease is a mud pit. Everyone is more wet than dry. It’s the kind of session Lebanon girls basketball coach Tim Kehoe remembers seeing one day years ago while driving out of the school parking lot.
“The day after a tough loss,” Kehoe said with a grin. “It was cold and raining, and Sara was about eight months pregnant.”
To the players’ credit, they fight through the conditions. Freshman Jessie Hastings has discovered the joy of shooting hard, if not always accurately, and fires several rockets, one of which hits goaltender Elizabeth Jones’ plastic neck guard with a startling bang. Another leaves fellow netminder Emma Thibodeau hobbling with a sore knee. In girls lacrosse, a player who shoots and hits a defender can be issued a yellow card if the referees deem her to have had time to stop before release. So Hastings will have to pick her spots.
“She really does care,” muses Ecker, who suspects the Grantham resident previously succeeded via raw athletic talent. “She’s making adjustments to her play and listening and learning.”
The next morning’s practice begins at 8:30 a.m. and, mercifully, without rain. At its end, the coaches chat with Katie Berthasavage, recently designated as the first sophomore co-captain of Ecker’s 23-year tenure. She’s a potential college player and is wondering how to get some of her teammates to compete hard against each other in practice without worrying whether they’re showing up their friends.
“A lot of people protect their social place in life by making others like them,” Ecker says. “This isn’t the place for that.”
Berthasavage admired last year’s co-captains, seniors Kendra MacDonald and Elle Brine, who are now playing college sports. Brine was willing to tell her teammates what she thought they needed to hear, not just what they wanted to hear, Berthasavage says. She wonders if, as an underclass player, she can do the same.
Teen boys are more willing to call each other out and get over it faster. But a critical comment from one girl to another, even if done constructively, often leaves more of a mark. Getting past that, and being willing to compete in a healthy way and work out one’s problems face to face, is a large part of what Ecker aims to instill in her team. The coach said she’s seen teenagers’ stress levels steadily increase during the past two decades. It’s not uncommon for her players to arrive on the field wiping away tears, she adds.
“With girls, you never know 100 percent who your friends are,” Ecker says. “You never know who’s been talking behind your back. Kids don’t always know how to say you’ve hurt their feelings. Instead, they send out a text that says you’re a bitch.”
Berthasavage nods. “Every girl has something going on when they come to practice. You never know who to trust.”
The Raiders hope they can figure it out in a few days against visiting Hopkinton. Their next four games are against opponents who might be the cream of the NHIAA Division III crop.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.