Middle School lacrosse coaches Lacey Allis and Mary Freni
Learning Specialist Mary Freni came to the Prep two years ago not having picked up a lacrosse stick since high school. Naturally, it was not without some apprehension that she agreed to co-coach the Middle School’s white team last spring with seventh-year head coach Lacey Allis, a CLAS Learning Coach at St. John’s.
Freni knew the gig would be challenging and fun, but she didn’t anticipate how much a single hour every day after school from March to May could enhance her own job performance. Spoiler alert: It most certainly did.
But let’s back up a moment.
Both Allis and Freni played high school lacrosse—the former at Pingree, the latter at Beverly High—Allis was a three-sport scholastic athlete who went on to play ice hockey and club lax at Slippery Rock University. These days, Allis runs half marathons and still skates in a rec league. Simply put, she has a high compete level. Freni is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with a background in data interpretation. One can’t help wondering how a right-brained/left-brained coaching combo syncs up to guide 12 and 13-year‐olds on a lacrosse field.
“Honestly, it’s been fabulous,” says Allis. “Mary is someone who constantly wants to learn and is the most positive person you’ll meet. She’s brought an attitude of trying to reinforce good behavior amongst the boys, which really complements my style of goal-setting, conditioning, and learning to play together as a team in terms of Xs and Os.”
More than four dozen kids came out for the grade 7 (white) and grade 8 (blue) teams this year. The Middle School program is both introductory and developmental. That second piece takes on outsized meaning when you consider these squads feed a high school program that entered this spring having won four consecutive state titles.
“Ultimately, we’ve combined to create an atmosphere where the emphasis is on fun, so the boys remember it’s about loving the sport," says Allis. "But it’s also about being a good person. We really drive home the respect component, the teachable moments, and the need to be a good teammate. Some of these boys will play with the guy next to them for years to come, so it’s helpful to learn early on that you win as a team.”
Freni has proven to be more than just a different voice at practices. She’s taken on the laborious and mildly fraught duty of tracking player minutes (everyone gets equal time). She’s also brought innovation to the table—creating a rewards card system whereby kids can earn good-behavior coupons for performing a team-oriented activity or kindness without prompting. These tickets are redeemable for anything from requesting a favorite drill to getting to sit out a
conditioning session.
All that aside, Freni has noticed a byproduct of coaching that she didn’t expect.
“I think a lot of bonding has happened, even during the offseason, over the past year,” she says. “In classrooms, I can see the lacrosse kids have gravitated toward each other in a healthy way. I also think they see me in a different context because coaching allows them to see another side of us. It’s also helped me to understand the Middle School so much better—knowing that subset of kids and then getting to know their friends who don’t even play lacrosse.”
Perhaps it’s not surprising that two months of positive reinforcement from two distinct voices on an athletic field generates good outcomes with staying power.
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