Bethel Park lacrosse coach focuses on players’ mental health

A casual observer simply may see teenage girls playing lacrosse

Their coach tends to view a world of possibilities that transcends sports.

“This is the future,” Becky Luzier said. “We’re looking at the ability to change every ill that exists in our society on this field right now, because someday they’re going to be in charge of all of it.”

As members of the regional Intrepid Girls Lacrosse Club prepared for an early July practice at Sewickley Academy, Luzier discussed an initiative she started during the spring as head coach of the Bethel Park High School team: putting a focus on mental health support.

“We want to serve them in every way that they exist, because they are a nuanced, vibrant, total package of a human being,” she said. “They’re not just lacrosse players.”

Prior to practices, she and Taylor Connors, her assistant both at Bethel Park and for Intrepid, have been providing what they like to call tools for the girls’ tool belts. From pointers on how to communicate effectively to conversations on the value of vulnerability, the coaches address a variety of topics that can assist the teens in coping with issues that confront them, now and later in life.

“You want to have all different kinds of strategies in there, because every situation is different,” Connors told the players. “Being able to know what works for you is important.”

The former Bethel Park lacrosse player — Luzier was her coach — spoke at Sewickley Academy about the significance of turning negative thoughts into something more beneficial.

“It’s not going to only apply to your athletics, but it can apply to your academics, your life in general,” Connors said. “Being able to have a more positive outlook is really helpful, especially the older you get and the more difficult things you may start to face.”

At her request, the girls gave some lacrosse-specific examples of negative notions, such as “I didn’t do well enough for my defense” and “Why did I take that shot? That was a stupid shot.”

Counter to that could be: “Next time, we can work on our communication to work better as a defensive unit” and “Next time, I’ll work for the better shot.”

But flipping the script, so to speak, can be a challenge.

“You have to retrain your brain. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a whole therapeutic practice,” Connors said. “So don’t try this one time, and if it doesn’t work, say, ‘I’m done.’ You really have to work at it.”

The coaches also advise working toward learning how to resolve conflicts in a productive manner.

“If we have an expectation that I can come to you and talk to you about something that’s bothering me, we can have a conversation about it and move forward together,” Luzier said. “So the next time you have a conflict, you’ll handle it better between the two of you. You’re more likely to give her or him, your mom or dad or whoever, the benefit of the doubt that you would never give them if you hadn’t already worked through a conflict.”

Again, moving in that direction may not come easily, especially for females.

“From a social-conditioning standpoint, young women in particular are coached to be nice, good, passive and accommodating. This is messaging to girls that men don’t get,” Luzier said. “Because they’ve been conditioned to not rock the boat, they have conflicts with each other and it will just metastasize. If they had just talked three weeks ago about the original thing that happened, they could have nipped it in the bud.”

She began to place an emphasis on the mental health of her players following reports of several college athletes taking their own lives. The initiative was received so well at Bethel Park, by the students and their parents, she decided to bring it to the Intrepid Girls Lacrosse Club, for which she serves as director.

“They’re going to be influenced by something,” she said. “We’re going to try our damnedest to make sure that they’re influenced by us, in the best way possible.”