Coach Kristen MacMillan continues coaching career
CHESTERFIELD, Va. – Kristen MacMillan is the Head Varsity Girls Lacrosse Coach for Monacan High School where she has coached for the past five years. In all, she has 12 years of coaching experience and even more as a player herself. She enjoys the time she spends with the girls on her team and the experiences she has as their coach.
When asked what got her into lacrosse, Kristen shared that lacrosse was very popular in Maryland but it wasn’t introduced to Leonardtown, MD, where she was living, until 2000. She started playing lacrosse when she was 15 years old because some of her friends played the previous year and thought she should give it a try.
“I almost made the varsity team my first season but started regularly on JV that first year. I moved up to Varsity my junior year and played through senior year. Initially, playing in college wasn’t on my radar, but when I was accepted into the University of Mary Washington, a Division III school in Fredericksburg, I contacted the coach and asked to be a walk-on. I played in college for Coach Dana Hall.”
During her senior year, Kristen became a certified referee so that she could officiate games in the greater Fredericksburg area. She was also an assistant coach for a varsity team in Prince William and a youth travel team in Stafford. In 2013, Kristen started a lacrosse program at Courtland High School, where she handled everything from forming the team, running practices, scheduling games, scheduling and painting the game field, ordering uniforms, and running all of the fundraisers. She left Courtland two years later for Virginia Beach and unfortunately, the program did not survive. After relocating to Virginia Beach, she thought lacrosse would be put on hold, however; a coach from V3 lacrosse (a travel program in the area) saw her profile on LinkedIn and contacted me to help coach their middle school travel program. Her journey thankfully did not end there. During her first week at Monacan, after relocating to Chesterfield, her principal saw the “Mary Washington Lacrosse” sticker on her car and she was immediately introduced to Danny Parsons, DSA at Monacan to be the new head coach of Monacan’s Varsity Girls team. She started with them in the Spring of 2017 and has been with them ever since!
In coaching, Kristen feels that team morale is very important. “There are teams in our district that are always good and at times my girls are timid in those games because they know what the outcome will be,” she stated. She explained that they work on things in practice that will help them against strong teams both offensively and defensively. She reviews each game with the girls, discussing what worked well and what did not work well. “There’s usually more praise than criticism. I end the conversation with ‘shake this one off, onto the next one’,” she shared. Kristen explained that girls work hard and that they are able to take criticism well. She has girls coming to her with very little playing experience, if any, and spends the time necessary to practice fundamentals with all of her players.
When asked about her proudest moments as a coach, Kristen said, “I don’t think there’s just one moment that I would consider my proudest. I’m proud of my team for what they do every single day. When you think of lacrosse in Chesterfield, Monacan is not one of the first schools that comes to mind. There are some very talented teams in our district and our games against them most of the time end up lopsided. But those games don’t discourage the girls on my team. Prior to playing these very talented teams, we look for strategies that will help us be successful on the field in other ways, such as maintaining possession, using the time on the clock, and slowing down the opposing team’s transition. If we’re able to do those things well, then we were successful. There was one game that we came very close to beating a strong team. It was the 2017 season in a game against James River. I had three very strong players and a handful of good players that complimented the strong players well. That game against River was one of the longest games that I coached because the goal scoring was very back and forth. The final score ended up being 21-20 with James River holding out for the victory in the end. At the end of the game, I could see tears in my players’ eyes. They knew a win against River was in reach and they were disappointed that they couldn’t seal the win. I had to remind them of all the things they accomplished in that game, including scoring 20 goals against a very good team. The bottom line here is no matter what, I have a group of girls that are dedicated to the program; they show up every day, put in the work at each practice, and focus on each opponent one game at a time. We’ve had seasons where we’ve won 7 games and seasons where we’ve only won one game. But these girls love the game and will work hard to be successful. That’s just as important.” Additionally, she shared, “ It’s not always about winning. I measure their success based on how well the girls can implement the skills that they have learned in practice into a game situation”.
Kristen continues to play the game herself. The Richmond area has a women’s lacrosse league called WORLL (Women of Richmond Lacrosse League). She started playing in 2018, took a couple of seasons off, and picked it back up this past summer. She shared that it was a fun experience for the whole family as her husband and daughters came out to watch her play every week! She stated that she couldn’t do all of this without the support of her family.
“My husband Mark is my number one supporter. Before the pandemic, he would come to every game. He’s gotten to know the game well enough that the parents in the stands will look to him for questions about what call was made on the field. He has allowed me to embrace my passion for lacrosse on many levels and I am grateful for that. I am also grateful that I have been able to share my love of lacrosse with my daughters, Charlotte and Abigail. Charlotte has been on the sidelines with me from the first game at Monacan through the start of the pandemic. She gets so excited on game day. The girls on the team have become her big sisters. Because of COVID, Abigail hasn’t been able to be with me as much as Charlotte but she will have opportunities down the road. There’s nothing more memorable than having your family with you on the sidelines while doing something that you love”.
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