On April 1, history was made as Grove City High School’s girls lacrosse team took the field at Leasure Field competing in the first-ever home, lacrosse game in district history-a testament to the growing interest in the sport among local student-athletes. While the sport was offered to all four high school this spring, only GCHS saw enough interest in the inaugural season to field a team.
Following weeks of hard work and determination, the 23-member Greyhound girls lacrosse team would defeat Westerville Central 11-2 in that matchup – marking a successful start to their 2025 campaign.
“It’s been an amazing opportunity and as players I think we’ve come so far and even that it wants me to be motivated more and improve,” said sophomore Taegan Shope. “I feel like leading up to our first scrimmage that we had, we were all really nervous about trying to compete with this team, but we really showed up and just pushed forward with it. And in that moment I was like, we’ve came a long way and we’ve improved so much.”
For first year head coach Melissa Ludwin, the lead-up to the first home contest was a culminating moment for the team.
“They’re just excited to play,” said Ludwin. “They’re excited to have the opportunity to be recognized by the school, to have our name out there and to be able to play under the stadium lights.”
Head coach Ludwin, assistant coaches Crystal Keogler and Maddie Arends, have ties back to previous coaching efforts in Dublin. When the opportunity presented itself to start and grow the lacrosse community here at Grove City High School, it was a unique challenge the collective was ready to tackle.
“A big thing in our program is that we give back to the sport,” said Ludwin. “That’s why I’ve been coaching now for eight years – is just being able to give back to the sport. And the sport is so much bigger than just you as an individual. It’s a community. You play for the girl next to you. When this opportunity presented itself, I was talking with my two assistant coaches here and we just thought, ‘Hey, why not?’ We’ve been coaching over in Dublin for years and we thought this was the next step in our coaching career that we had a good footing and understanding of coaching and what that takes and how to bring the love of the sport to the girls that we coach, that we really wanted to bring that to the community here down in Grove City.”
While the sport was something new for senior Ava DeRose, the prospect of finishing her senior year trying something new was an opportunity she could not turn down.
“In the summer I kind of picked it up just for fun,” said DeRose. “It was something to do and I realized, ‘hey, this sport is actually pretty cool.’ As a team, while we haven’t been playing for very long, a lot of improvement has been made and I think just having the great coaches we do, just being taught well and stuff like that, we’re capable than a lot more than we thought we were.”
While the draw of lacrosse has captivated new players like DeRose, Greyhounds senior Izzy Geiger has been playing for many years.
“I’ve been playing lacrosse for about four years now,” said Geiger. “I played in fifth and sixth grade and I actually had to play on a boys team for Grove City club lacrosse because we didn’t have enough for girls team. I hope to leave behind something here (through being a part of the first lacrosse team). Getting the youth involved is really important. I know it wasn’t always an option when some of us were younger, so as long as there’s an option for younger girls to get involved, I think this program could really build up quickly and get us further in the season than we think.”
As interest in lacrosse continues to grow, students at other high schools who would like to see a team at their school are encouraged to speak with their building athletic department. Expanding sports programs depends on student demand and staff availability, and gathering interest now will help determine future opportunities for next season as the District hopes to have enough interest to field girls lacrosse teams at all four high schools during the 2025-2026 school year (boys lacrosse is slated to be offered for the first time next school year as well).
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