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Brigham Young University women’s lacrosse team canceled their normal training due to the COVID-19 surge.
Cases of COVID-19 in the state of Utah have surged, causing BYU Athletics to make drastic changes in their activities.
BYU women’s lacrosse coach Nikki Dabrowski said the players have developed a positive attitude when such challenges arise.
“There has been a little bit of gratitude that I feel it pervaded throughout the team, because we recognize how of a blessing it is to be on the field just for a day when we know other teams aren’t getting to be on the field,” she said.
Coach Dabrowski added that the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (WCLA) has not yet made a decision on whether the season will kick-off in January.
She said that they look forward to keep practicing whenever the school allows them to be back on the field as they wait to find out whether they will play conference, Utah teams or national games.
Dabrowski led the team to nationals three times, finishing fifth, second and fourth in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. She attributed the great performance to good preparation.
“We conditioned quite a bit. I think the team was very prepared to be able to run the field for multiple games,” she said.
She added that depth in the team will be critical from now henceforth.
“If you don’t have depth on your bench to be able to help the starters and help the bench players get into the game, then your energy will run out eventually,” she added.
This year, the team recruited many players from high school during their tryout to strengthen the squad.
“We ended up taking a bigger roster than we usually do because of the talent that we saw at the tryouts. We knew that our numbers might be affected by COVID, even in daily practice,” the women’s lacrosse coach said.
She said that she is happy at the team’s progress since the time when she was a player in 2012-2015, before the BYU women’s lacrosse team became an extramural sport.
“The irony of kinda seeing it coming, or hoping that it will come one day, and actually happening as soon as I graduated, was kinda funny,” she said.
The team was established in 1994 and plays in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
