{"id":439,"date":"2012-08-09T14:07:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T14:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=439"},"modified":"2012-09-21T14:33:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T14:33:32","slug":"varsity-lacrosse-coach-jen-fulcher-and-her-top-ranked-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2012\/08\/09\/varsity-lacrosse-coach-jen-fulcher-and-her-top-ranked-wildcats\/","title":{"rendered":"Varsity Lacrosse Coach Jen Fulcher and her Top-Ranked Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cFulcher Impact\u201d<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>
\nOver the past six seasons, under the humor and guidance of Coach Jen Fulcher, the Williston Northampton girl\u2019s varsity lacrosse team have\u00a0 maintained a 65-5-1 record, gone undefeated during both the 2008 and 2009 seasons, and rose, according to LaxPower, from #42 to as high as the #2 girl\u2019s prep team in New England.<\/p>\n

Coaching Success<\/strong>
\nSuch an impressive record does not come easily, however.\u00a0 While some students are headed to dinner the lacrosse players are on the field running offenses, practicing stick work, and sprinting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not circumstance that her program is successful,\u201d said Assistant Coach and Dean of Students Kathy Noble.\u00a0 \u201cJen runs a tight ship with high and unwavering expectations that her kids reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her coaching, Fulcher stresses the idea that when you want something you have to be willing to work harder than your opponents.\u00a0 \u201cConditioning is a high priority in the team\u2019s schedule,\u201d said Noble.\u00a0 \u201cThe girls work as hard on a daily basis as many college teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s special [about Fulcher\u2019s coaching] is that it\u2019s all done with some degree of levity and smiling faces,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

At the core of Fulcher\u2019s coaching ethos is the message:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not meet a team who is willing to work harder than we are, who is fitter than us, or who wants it more than we do.\u00a0 You\u2019re not tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the sidelines of a game, or during a particularly difficult conditioning exercise you can hear a chorus of \u201cYou\u2019re not tired,\u201d coming from the players.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Coach Fulcher expects her team to be perfect.\u00a0 \u201cPart of improving and growing up is making mistakes, and we always want to grow,\u201d Fulcher said.\u00a0 \u201cI try to create an atmosphere where kids are not afraid to make mistakes.\u00a0 Kids who play afraid to make mistakes aren\u2019t playing the way I want them to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Positive attitude and a team-first mentality are a must for members of this team.\u00a0 These girls work hard at practice to become the very best athletes they can be not for personal gain but because it will improve the team.\u00a0 On and off the field they support each other, carrying each other through the highs and lows of their high school years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a motivator she is truly outstanding,\u201d wrote Mark Conroy, the athletic director, in a recent email.\u00a0 \u201cShe has\u00a0an extraordinary\u00a0ability to inspire her athletes to become tremendous competitors and teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt that the life\u00a0lessons our girls learn playing for Jen will serve them well far beyond their lacrosse playing days here at Williston,\u201d wrote Conroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better way to prepare for life than sport.\u201d<\/strong>
\nFulcher\u2019s coaching does not stop when she steps off the field.\u00a0 It\u2019s the bigger lessons that she gets to teach that matter more than the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better way to prepare for life than sport,\u201d said Coach Fulcher.\u00a0 The girls who have played in this program feel \u201cempowered to take things on,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cThey can be whatever they want\u2026mothers, coworkers, the President of the United States, whatever they want, and they learn that through the confidence they earn on the field and the resilience they gain from playing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Coach Fulcher\u2019s commitment to her players reaches past the field, so does the dedication that the alumni have for Williston\u2019s lacrosse program. Coach Fulcher said what\u00a0 means the most to her is when she receives letters from former players reminiscing about how the lacrosse program changed them as a person, how they grew as a competitor, learned to believe in themselves, and to put the group before the individual.<\/p>\n

Erin Davey, a former girls varsity lacrosse assistant coach, stressed the unique balance of Fulcher\u2019s coaching style.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe creates intensity on the field but instills a remarkable amount of poise in her athletes, and that is something that is very important when working with female athletes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Continued Excellence<\/strong>
\nJeff Simpson, father of Karly \u201913 and Gracie \u201915, both members of the team, notes that since Fulcher was named head coach, \u201cWilliston girl\u2019s lacrosse has experienced nothing less than a meteoric rise in their dominance over the most elite lax programs in New England.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us should take a moment to think about the rare combination of talents, and commitment Coach Fulcher has brought to bear on this program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I tell my son Hudson,\u201d Fulcher said.\u00a0 \u201cYou play Monopoly to win, but when you only focus on the hotels you miss the fun in between.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cFulcher Impact\u201d Over the past six seasons, under the humor and guidance of Coach Jen Fulcher, the Williston Northampton girl\u2019s varsity lacrosse team have\u00a0 maintained a 65-5-1 record, gone undefeated during both the 2008 and 2009 seasons, and rose, according to LaxPower, from #42 to as high as the #2 girl\u2019s prep team in … Continue reading Varsity Lacrosse Coach Jen Fulcher and her Top-Ranked Wildcats<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[24,274,275],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics-news","tag-girls-varsity-lacrosse","tag-jen-fulcher","tag-wildcats"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}