The Summit High School girls lacrosse team will start anew this season as Carly Sane has been appointed as the new head coach after Samantha Lonsway coached the program for a single season last year.

During the brief Lonsway era, she coached the team to a 0-10 record during the 2021 spring season, where the team faced league-only opponents. The team ended the season with the worst record in the 4A Mountain East league standings.

This being said, Sane has her work cut out for her as she takes over the reigns of a program that hasn’t had a season over .500 since the 2011 season when the team went 9-6.

Sane has her fair share of lacrosse experience as she originally comes from the East Coast where she played Division I lacrosse at Monmouth College when they were part of the Mid Atlantic Athletic Conference.

After playing with the Monmouth Hawks during her college career, she has helped start youth lacrosse programs in the greater Denver area and helped develop several athletes who wanted to play at the next level in college.

Sane now splits her time between running a thrift shop in Fairplay called Synchronicity Thrift and coaching the Summit girls lacrosse team.

“To have this job and to know that Summit needed someone to run the program and they didn’t have anyone stepping up, and the timing for me with owning my own business in Fairplay was really great,” Sane said. “I really feel my heart here at this school.”

Sane is excited to see how many girls are also excited about the spring lacrosse season after the team had a tough season last year with low attendance.

The team currently has no problem with attendance as 21 athletes are on the varsity roster and 23 athletes are on the junior varsity roster.

With a few weeks of practice now under Sane’s belt as head coach of the program, she feels like there won’t be a single player or group of players who will lead the team throughout the season, rather it will be a group effort.

“There are so many girls who bring so much different talent and skill to the team,” Sane said. “I think anybody really has the potential to be a leader and represent the team well. There is so much diversity and skill.”

The program graduated three seniors last year, meaning the team now has a good amount of skilled upperclassmen, but according to Sane, about half of the team is made up of girls new to the sport.

Sane, along with with the upperclassmen, will work to develop and mentor the members of the team that are new to the sport throughout the season.

Among the returners is a strong core of five seniors including Sarah Anne Hayhurst, Taylor Tullio, Savannah Frasier, Caroline Fischer and Avey Riberdy.

In terms of goals for the program as the Summit girls lacrosse team begins their season, Sane wants to keep it simple.

“The only thing I expect or strive for as a goal for these girls is to give the full experience of being an athlete at a high school representing their team,” Sane said.

The Summit lacrosse team will not be overtly focused on winning games but rather soaking in the experience and living in the moment of each game or practice.

“I genuinely want them to enjoy themselves and each other because the skill comes very naturally when everyone is just having a good time,” Sane said. “I think when that is seen on the field and in a team you just naturally perform better.”