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Cottonwood Heights Journal

Cohesive Olympus girls lacrosse team takes D2 championship

Jun 19, 2017 02:41PM ● By Jesse Sindelar

The Olympus girls lacrosse team topped Weber 12-8 in the D2 championship this May. (Olympus lacrosse/ Holladay)

      By Jesse Sindelar | [email protected]
 
The Olympus girls lacrosse team had a wonderfully successful season, taking the D2 high school lacrosse championship this May. While the road to get there was a little bumpy, they dominated in the championships.
 
“We always have had a lot of talent on the team,” said Head Coach Amy Erickson.
 
Their biggest self-prescribed problem, however, was their team cohesion and growth. “We always needed growth as a team — our pool of talent was never an issue,” said Erickson.
 
However, this season was the season the team just clicked, even though not much was expected from them.
 
“I knew we would have a growing season. But it really went smoothly. Our wins were just fun. We finally created a pretty cohesive unit,” Erickson said.
 
This cohesive unit allowed for a good bit of depth to the team, and even when starters were hurt or off their game, the balanced team knowledge made up for it.
 
“If one girl couldn’t play, it didn’t matter, because the next girl was ready to step up, implement the system,” said Erickson. 
 
The team knowledge and cohesion was huge, and allowed them to overcome a midseason slump on the way to their title.
 
“We had a pretty hard patch in the middle of the season. We played some pretty tough teams and lost four in a row. It was definitely mentally hard,” said Erickson.
 
But the bump in the road didn’t stop them from ending the season strong, so strong in fact that they got through the first round of playoffs with a bye.
 
Their playoffs began in the quarterfinals, where they handled Jordan 11-5. Then they dealt with Davis in the semis 10-6, before beating Weber 12-8 in the finals.
 
With this being Erickson’s second year at the helm, her first playoffs experience was helpful for what not to do.
 
“My first year, we were set to go number one in D2 and then proceeded to lose our first game. So this year was going to be different,” she said.
 
After marching through the playoffs, always winning by at least four points, Erickson still focuses on how the team is developing, which clearly has paid off already and will continue to pay off in the future.
 
“Usually as a team progresses, with success, they develop as a whole team, as a collective unit. We seem to be doing that quite well. We are only losing three seniors, so we have a pretty young team overall, and next season that development and cohesion can pick up right where we left off.”
 
After collectively pulling themselves together, overcoming four straight losses and completely dominating the playoffs in the championship run, the Olympus girls lacrosse team has a bright future ahead, with a title-winning season blueprint up their sleeve as well. Look for this team to amaze more in the coming years.