Learning lacrosse: Camp for girls coming to Hampton

For 5-year-old girls, the tools of the lacrosse trade may seem to be a bit out of the ordinary.

“Most of them have never seen the stick before,” Mariah Maxson said.

As head coach of the Hampton Township Girls Lacrosse Club, she has the objective of teaching children as young as kindergartners how to play one of the nation’s fastest-growing sports.

They’ll have the opportunity during the club’s summer learn-to-play and skill-development clinic series, scheduled for three consecutive Sundays, Aug. 14-28.

“For a lot of girls at that age level, this is their first real go at a team sport,” Maxson said. “So a lot of it is getting them to wait in line and follow the directions.”

From there, they learn fundamentals such as catching and throwing ground balls, of a softer variety than the older players use. Along the way, they discover the purpose of the pole called the crosse and its triangular-shaped, basket-looking head.

Often, they learn about the sport right along with their parents.

“They’re typically not super familiar with it,” their coach said. “Most of them have never played it or anything like that.”

But the parents have been nothing but supportive, according to Maxson, who is entering her seventh season of coaching the Hampton Middle School girls team.

Her club program’s summer camp, which is offered for free to township residents, features sessions for two age groups: kindergarten through fourth grade, 9 to 10:30 a.m., and fifth through eighth grades, 10:30 to noon.

The action takes place at Fridley Field, where the high school varsity team has enjoyed successes including back-to-back state championships in 2017-18 and reaching the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League semifinals for six years running. Head coach Kelsey Burke, who scored her 100th victory in 2022, will join some of her Lady Talbots in helping Maxson with the camp.

Also advising will be Maxson’s “phenomenal assistant coach,” as she describes Maria Cefola. While playing goalkeeper for Franklin Regional High School, Cefola won accolades including team Most Valuable Player and all-WPIAL selections, and she also excelled at Chatham University.

Maxson played scholastic lacrosse in Tacoma, Wash., for a year before taking her talents to Greene County’s Waynesburg University. She later coached at her high school before returning to Pennsylvania, and she now lives in Cranberry.

“With me starting in my senior year of high school, I absolutely love getting to start them so little,” she said about working with elementary-age players. “I love that my daughters will be able to start so young.”

Daughter Dylin, who just turned 4, has been tagging along — “She learned how to crawl on a lacrosse field” — with Mom to plenty of practices, and she knows the routine.

“We run a lap to start,” Dylin said. “I help them run their laps. But I don’t help them throw.”

That probably will change soon.

In the meantime, Mariah manages to maintain a schedule that includes coaching club teams in age groups Under-8, Under-10, Under-12 and Under-14.

“When I first started, I only had U-14 and U-12,” Maxson said. “I’ve added the younger grades since then.”

She said that about 40 to 50 girls participate during the spring club season, and she expects about 50 for the summer camp. Beginners and returning players are advised to wear athletic attire and bring mouth guards and water bottles, and sticks, goggles and pinnies — they’re practice vests — will be available to borrow.

For more information, visit hamptongirlslacrosse.com.