Girls' lacrosse: Lewiston's Chasse puts heart into lacrosse

Lewiston lacrosse player Christine Chasse takes a break for a photo prior to a recent practice. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Christine Chasse likes long walks on the beach. With her lacrosse stick.

“I do a lot offseason. A lot,” she said. “I live in OOB for the summer, and I’m always using my stick. I practice left hand, right hand, stick skills on the beach all the time.”

Those days at Old Orchard Beach have paid off. As a sophomore midfielder last year, Chasse led the Lewiston girls’ lacrosse team in scoring.

Earlier this week, Chasse tried out for and made the Maine team, which will play in a national tournament Memorial Day weekend at Stony Brook University in New York.

She also plays soccer for the Blue Devils, but she spends most of her offseasons with lacrosse.

“I think she really cares about lacrosse,” Lewiston team captain Gabby Wilson said. “I don’t want to say more than anyone else (on the team), because I’m not sure, but it’s definitely in her heart. She loves lacrosse, and she tries really hard.”

Chasse grew up by Caroline and Charlotte Gastonguay, who play for St. Dominic Academy, and their mom, Leslie Klenk, the St. Dom’s coach, suggested Chasse try playing lacrosse.

“(She) coached me right when I started,” Chasse said. “She’s the one that got me into it, actually, she’s like, ‘You should play lacrosse.’ And then she just kept me going with it, since. She kind of started me out with it. And I just love the sport, so I’ve stuck with it.”

She also plays with the Maineiax Lacrosse Club, a Portland-based travel team. It is with the Maineiax that she said she learned the importance of communication.

Chasse says she was shy as an underclassman. But she wasn’t afraid of talking on the field.

“Not only does she score a lot of our goals, but she’s good at talking, communicating,” Lewiston team captain Gabby Wilson said. “She’s good on the offense, she cuts a lot, and she is always, like, open, because she yells.”

She’s also not shy about talking off the field. She, along with Erin Lachance, is one of the Blue Devils’ assistant captains, and Lewiston coach Brant Remington has noticed Chasse embracing her duties and sharing her knowledge.

“She’s kind of working into more of a leadership role, which I’ve already seen in the first couple weeks of practice,” Remington said. “She helps me out, like if I go over something, then she’ll add to it at the end, give it some more from the players’ perspective.

“She’s almost like a mini-coach sometimes. She has a lot of knowledge.”

That knowledge is one of Chasse’s biggest strengths. She has great stick skills, and is nearly as good left-handed as she is right-handed. But she’s also a patient, cerebral player.

“She has a good eye for where to be,” Remington said. “She gets in position really well. She surveys the play. Doesn’t just run around in circles all the time. Sometimes you’ll see her kind of stand still, kind of surveying everything that’s going on, and then make a break at the right moment.”

Chasse scored a team-high 36 goals to go along with 10 assists in 2017. Remington said she probably could have scored more, if she wanted.

“The big thing that sticks out is the unselfish play that she has, and being a team player,” Remington said. “She really wants the girls, individually, on the team to do well themselves, and obviously for the team to do well.”

“If I see someone open,” Chasse said, “if I have a shot but there’s kind of someone on me and someone’s more wide open, then I’ll pass to them. I feel like if they have more of an advantage, then they should get it. As long as we win.”

With the number of players from last year’s team who graduated, Remington said the Blue Devils will probably need more goals from Chasse this season. She might even play more at attack.

“She’s primarily a midfielder, but I told her (last week) in practice, ‘We need you to score goals,’” Remington said. “We lost Morgan Eliasen, we lost Dacia Bell, lost Sasha LeClair — that’s a lot of goals that we lost. So we need her step up and be that goal scorer. Be a little selfish at times, know when it’s time to do that.”

The Blue Devils won the KVAC championship last year by finally beating Messalonskee. Chasse hopes to build on that success in 2018.

“My goal is definitely, I want to get somewhere this season, and win stuff,” she said. “I really want to win. I really want to work together as a team to come together with all that and just progress and see us get to know each other better and laughing with the team and just having fun.”

Then, in the summer, it’s back to the beach.