US-based player/coach moving to lift lacrosse to another level

Karen Healy-Silcott, player/coach on the national lacrosse team, says her role is difficult but she is determined to help to develop the sport in Jamaica.

Born in the United States to a Jamaican mother and former player at the Syracuse University, Healy-Silcott says representing Jamaica in the sport has always been a dream of hers.

“Just representing Jamaica and being close to my family was really important to me, (and) we travel there quite frequently to play lacrosse and to grow the game there,” she said from her home in the United States. “I have always been waiting for Jamaica to have a lacrosse team. So I kept looking through social media back in 2019 and I found out that the country had a senior women’s team that was participating in a World Championships qualifying match,” she said.

Soon after, she played her first lacrosse game for Jamaica, as she was a member of the women’s team for the Pan American Lacrosse Association (PALA) Women’s Lacrosse World Qualifier in November 2019.

Healy-Silcott, who is now the head coach of the national women’s lacrosse team, said sports is something which runs deep in her roots, as her grandfather competed in track and field and her uncle represented Jamaica in football.

She said sports has been and continues to be a major part of her life.

“Coaching has been my entire career for 20 years, (but) it is not easy because I also have an eight-year-old. But moms find strength to do anything - it makes me really proud,” she said.

Healy-Silcott who is also the head coach of the Bison’s women’s lacrosse team at Howard University, said she is determined to help Jamaica’s team climb up the world rankings.

“Right now, we are ranked pretty low in the world. I think, out of 36 teams, I think we are ranked 34th,” she said. “I would really love to see us break into the top 10 by the end of the World Championships.”

FIRST CARIBBEAN NATION TO COMPETE

The Lacrosse Women’s World Championship will be held in Maryland, United States, June 29 to July 9, and Jamaica will become the first Caribbean nation to compete at the tournament.

The coach/player said, in order for the team to move forward, changes have to be made to the local lacrosse programme.

“The big thing we need to have is an adult league because, when the kids are done with school, they don’t have anywhere else to play. So having an adult league so they can carry through (play after they finish school) is important,” she said. Healy-Silcott added that they also need more people in Jamaica who know the game, and funds to bring coaches to the island on a consistent basis to run more camps and clinics for young players.

The local programme has received assistance through donated equipment, to help the sport grow locally.

Healy-Silcott and the team’s assistant coaches are continuing to put in the work to ensure the girls are ready for the World Championships.

“What has been happening is that I am the one with the connection to Jamaica. So I have been travelling there to run training sessions and to do camps. I also run the training sessions in the USA - so I am the one who kind of pieces it all together,” she said.

She added: “Hopefully, when the players come up in a couple of weeks for training camp here in the United States, ahead of the World Championships, we will have all the pieces together and have everyone on the field at the same time.”