Lewiston High School senior lacrosse players Christine Chasse, left, and Erin Lachance are playing for their third different coach in their four-year careers. Sun Journal photo by Russ Dillingham
LEWISTON — Christine Chasse and Erin Lachance preached team play when talking about this year’s Lewiston girls lacrosse team.
They could have been forgiven if they wanted to be a little more selfish, however. The two have seen everything around them change constantly in their four-year varsity careers.
First, a coaching change after their freshmen season. Then they had to say goodbye to their home field after their sophomore season, and they had to jump around the city to play home games as juniors.
Now, heading into their senior season, they have both a new coach and a new home field. And they couldn’t be more excited about both.
“I think all of us realize we have a great opportunity ahead of us,” Lachance said. “We have a beautiful new complex, we have an excellent new coach, we have a great group of girls, we’re very talented.”
Tracey Blaisdell has taken over the program, which now calls the new Don Roux Field turf its home.
The players didn’t find out about Blaisdell’s hiring until the days leading up to the start of preseason in March, but fortunately for Chasse and Lachance the new coach is an old coach for them.
“We started together in fifth grade, and we actually started with Tracey,” Lachance said. “So it’s interesting to have her back as our head coach for our final year here.”
Blaisdell has been a longtime coach with the Lewiston Recreation program, which is where she first met Chasse and Lachance.
“It has been extremely valuable to have players who played for me in middle school now play for me at the high school level,” Blaisdell said. “Christine and Erin know my coaching style, so we’ve been able to hit the ground running in practice. They readily jump into drills, ask questions and are strong communicators. Their enthusiasm is contagious.”
Chasse and Lachance know a thing or two about learning how to work with new coaches. When they entered high school, they were coached by Skip Capone, then a year later his JV coach, Brant Remington, took over the program. Now Blaisdell is picking up where Remington (who is now the athletic director at Maranacook) left off.
“I expected Capone all four (years), but that didn’t happen,” Chasse said.
“It’s been very difficult to adapt, just because one coach has different things he wants us to do, like for priorities. Like the top list is definitely different than every single coach we’ve had, for like their top priorities for what the team has all together,” Chasse said. “But, overall, I think in the middle (of the season) we usually adapt to it, and it gets a lot better.”
Lachance said the transition from Capone to Remington “wasn’t too much of a shift because we kind of already knew what he was like, but I do think that he had a very different mentality going into it than Capone did.”
Having a second season with Remington last year brought welcomed consistency, according to Lachance.
Lewiston High School senior lacrosse players Christine Chasse, left, and Erin Lachance are playing for the third different coach in their four-year careers. Sun Journal photo by Russ Dillingham
But last year wasn’t without change. The old Don Roux Field was ripped up to make way for the new Connors Elementary School, so the team — like many of Lewiston’s programs for the 2017-18 school year — had to move around for home games, to various places like Drouin Field, next to Androscoggin Bank Colisee, and Bates College’s campus.
Both girls lamented Drouin Field for its bumpiness.
Now they get to finish their careers on the predictable field turf at the new Don Roux Field.
“It’s bittersweet because it’s a beautiful facility, we’re so lucky to have it, but it’s our last year,” Lachance said.
Chasse said preparing for the season has been easier on the new turf.
The girls’ experience with Blaisdell should also make things easier for the rest of the team.
“It was definitely like — since I had her for so long in middle school — I don’t know, I was kind of already used to her,” Chasse said. “I think everyone, since they’ve had Rem for so long with lacrosse and soccer — which a lot of the girls play soccer — I think they were very nervous getting into it, and thought that she would be different and not like the way that everyone played.”
“I think we just have the — for the people who had Rem — I think we have the mentality that Mr. Remington gave us a great base, a great foundation, he taught us a lot of defensive skills. He always made sure we were a close-knit team,” Lachance said. “And then Tracey played the game in college, she knows what she’s doing.
“So I think for the people who have had her, we know that, and we also know Rem’s style of play, so we’re kind of able to pass on to the newcomers that, ‘Hey, you know, she knows what she’s doing,’ and, ‘We’ve had this background, but she’s going to come in and carry us forward.'”
Lachance said the players and coaches have already had multiple team meetings, and that’s something both the girls appreciate.
“I think we all have pretty common objectives, and we all know what’s expected of ourselves and of each other. We’re going to hold each other accountable, but we’re also going to be very encouraging,” Lachance said. “And everyone has a role on this team, and I think everyone knows that. So I think we’re going to be a very strong team on and off the field.”
Chasse and Lachance are excited about what their fourth and final season on the team has in store, even if its nothing like they thought it was going to be when they first started out as freshmen.
“I think I had very different expectations,” Lachance said. “And that’s certainly not a bad thing that they’ve changed, but going into high school I certainly had a lot of different expectations of what it was supposed to be like. But I think it’s worked out probably for the better.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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