By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Madison Brennan began playing lacrosse around the age of 8 years old. She became good enough to not only play on the high school level, but she was able to continue to play the sport on the collegiate level at Worcester State University. Following college, she was a lacrosse coach in Killingly Connecticut before moving to the area. 

“I had gotten into coaching because my basketball coach always taught us life lessons and molded us into given advice and teaching techniques to the younger generation,” Brennan said. “Then I found myself in the Massachusetts area (Millbury in fact) and noticed that Hopedale was looking for a lacrosse coach. I applied and here I am, no regrets, I love this sport.”

While she has been living in Millbury, she knew nothing about Hopedale athletics so she had to learn about the Blue Raider program that she was about to take over.

“Being relatively new to town I had to look at past records to see what the program had been like in the past,” Brennan said. “What I found was not too exciting, but I did see that there was room for growth. I told the girls right from the beginning that I was going to set high standards, but if they worked hard they would succeed.”

During day one of the tryouts Brennan was a little intimidated at first as she was introduced to a new program with a lot of new faces but found that it was all one big family. When the girls too to the field for the first time under Brennan she immediately noticed the drive they possessed and how they wanted to succeed. 

Upon seeing what she believed the team could accomplish she did set her goals high. She wanted to go out and beat some of the teams that Hopedale has been unable to defeat in the past, especially Northbridge, a lacrosse rival; in addition to making the Division 4 State Tournament.

“We played Northbridge very early in the season (the third game) and lost by a large margin, but we came out of that game knowing what we had to do and put in some extra work for out next meeting,” the first year Hopedale Coach said. “That second game we didn’t want to make it easy for them and we were able to beat them 19-12 – it was not only rewarding as a new coach, but for the players as well.”

After recently defeating Bay Path to improve to 9-3 at the time of this writing Brennan and the Blue raiders are feeling very confident that they should be able to get into the State Tournament. Now they have to continue to go out and take each game one day at a time and strive for that winning season.

“Hopedale’s girls lacrosse has never achieved a winning season,” Brennan said. “But if we continue to put in the work it will happen. In the past this program has been looked down upon and we want to show everyone that we belong and can play with just about everyone.”

One of the bigger reasons the Blue Raiders have been successful this season has been because of senior captain Emily Frohn. The senior currently leads the team in scoring with 38 goals. Brennan noted that Frohn is a natural born leader and has really shinned on the field. 

“She has obtained her 100th career point for Hopedale this year and is an extremely uplifting individual keeping her teammates positive,” the Coach said. 

While Frohn is doing her best at putting the ball into the opposition’s goal, junior Allison Pearlman has stepped up and held the opposition at bay in the Hopedale net. Pearlman, whom her teammates call the brick wall, has put for the some truly incredible performances this year to keep Hopedale in the game. 

Senior captain Mary Firlings has also brought support to the team this spring as the encouraging leader. According to Brennan, she doesn’t put up huge numbers but works extremely hard to allow her teammates to succeed by providing off ball movement and picks.

While the upperclassmen are doing there jobs to get Hopedale to the Tournament, sophomore Brooklyn McAllister has been impressing the new coach on a daily basis.

“From day one to now she has continued to put in the work to be a top player on the team,” Brennan said. “She’s ben advancing her skills and starting to put numbers up on the board. Over the next 2 years she is going to develop into a major threat.”

With a mere seven games remaining on their schedule Hopedale is looking to keep growing while pushing themselves to be better. 

“We have already played a lot of the teams remaining on our schedule once,” Brennan said. “But it’s a new day and we need to keep fighting if we want to get into the tournament, which has been our goal from day one.”

While getting into the tournament and doing some damage would be the ultimate goal for the Blue Raiders, Brennan has told the girls, especially the seniors, to savor the moment as no one knows when their last game will be. Hold onto those memories that they already made this season. 

“This is a sport that I truly love,” the Coach said. “I keep preaching the biggest thing is to have fun and if we put in the work we’ll continue to be competitive.”

If Hopedale can win at least one game over the span of their last seven games they will become the first girls lacrosse team in Hopedale history to have a winning season, but they are looking for more than that to solidify their position in the Division 4 State Tournament.