This semester, Jordan Bernier ’22 and I completed an honors Senior Year Experience (SYE) for the Performance and Communications department under the guidance of Juraj Kittler. Our project included a four-part short documentary series profiling various student-athletes on campus amid their season. Our hope was to offer fans a window into the lives of these individuals’ busy schedules as college athletes and representatives of the school.
Our final episode was released this morning, and we chose to feature Maggie Green ’23, a defender on the women’s lacrosse team. Green matriculated in the fall of 2018 as a member of the class of 2022, but decided to take a year off from St. Lawrence during what would have been her junior year while the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on college life. Instead, she headed to Bozeman, Montana for the year with the assumption that there would be no 2021 season for St. Lawrence’s women’s lacrosse team. As it turned out, the team played a shortened eight-game season while Green had to cheer for her teammates from across the country. She returned to Canton this fall as a member of the class of 2023.
“Obviously taking a year off was a massive decision,” Green said, “And I knew I was going to feel left out and sad and missing my life at SLU, but I think the positives outweighed the negatives, and that’s what I had to keep telling myself. Every time I’d miss it here, every time I’d miss lacrosse, I just had to give everything I was doing to this experience in Montana.”
Green enjoyed immensely her time out west, working as a rental coordinator for a private real estate group and playing non-competitive lacrosse with friends at a school nearby, but still missed the North Country, and struggled with feeling like she was letting her team down, having missed the season last spring.
“There was obviously the pressure of reintegrating with the team,” she said of her return, “And I felt like I kind of abandoned the team and I was nervous how it would be like them all welcoming me back, and then I guess with a new coach you kind of had a whole clean slate which was good, so it felt like I wasn’t just the one starting over. Everyone was starting over.”
And with that feeling of a fresh start, the team has gone 16-1 in the regular season this spring, and will play in the Liberty League semi-finals tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. against Ithaca. As for Maggie, the defender is also coming off a phenomenal season, with ground balls 35 and 22 caused turnovers across 17 games played. But team caption Abby Eberle ’22 said Green’s contributions to the team are not limited to what happens on the field.
“Maggie’s just the teammate that everyone wants to have,” said Eberle. “On the field and off the field, it’s her heart, grit, and just supportive nature. She’s somebody that cares so much about all of her teammates, but the sport as well and she just makes sure that everyone else is doing okay before herself, which is admirable and I’ve never seen that girl do anything less than 110%. I just love having her on the team. She’s just an amazing person.”
To watch the full interview with Green, head to our Instagram, @morethanthescore_slu, or Youtube Channel, More Than The Score. As our project comes to a close with this final episode, Bernier and I would like to extend a huge thank you to Kittler, The Hill News, the St. Lawrence athletics department, and all of the athletes and coaches that were kind enough to participate. Lastly, we’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone who tuned in to watch any or all of our episodes!