Columbus North’s Kaitlyn Nester (27) and London Orme (4) defend the net during a girls lacrosse game this season.
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Three years ago, then-freshman Liberty Jones was anxious to play lacrosse, so she started a club team at Columbus North.
This spring, Jones was part of a large senior class that led the Bull Dogs to an undefeated season. They went 13-0 against a mix of varsity and JV opponents.
“When we first started off, we had won our first couple of games, and just that in itself was kind of a surprise to me,” Jones said. “I didn’t start this program going into it thinking that it was going to be anything that had any sort of perfection to it, but throughout the years as we’ve grown, it’s crazy to think that we had a completely perfect season this year.”
Jones, who is headed to play at Tusculum, and Rylie Boezeman, who plans to play at Marian, were the team’s leaders, along with fellow senior captain Jayden Cross.
Columbus North’s Rylie Boezeman heads toward the goal during a girls lacrosse game this season.
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While the team had players from Columbus East and Columbus Signature Academy the past two years, this year, all 21 girls on the team were from North.
Columbus North’s Jayden Cross, right, makes a move as Liberty Jones (13) sets a pick during a girls lacrosse game this season.
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“I’m just proud of how we were able to work together, especially with so many new people,” Cross said. “Just the fact that everyone wanted to be there and really wanted to have a good season, that’s how we got there in the end.”
One of those new girls was junior London Orme.
“I was very scared to say the least,” Orme said. “I’m not going to lie. It was something completely different from other sports that I had played. But when I went in here, the coaches were really warm and welcoming, and all the girls, too, and I just got to see how open the team was, and that really made me feel safe. It was really great. I got to see how the girls who I’ve played with for three years together, how they have responded. It was just a very open team, and I felt very welcome, even though they started three years ago and I just popped in.”
Columbus North’s Liberty Jones, left, looks to make a pass during a girls lacrosse game this season.
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Jones had played on a boys lacrosse team when she was in fifth and sixth grade, but then stepped away from lacrosse to play other sports until starting the girls lacrosse team as a sophomore.
“Obviously, the rules are very different, but I had known the basics of it,” Jones said. “In the couple of years prior to when I started the team, there had been interest in it, but nobody had really taken the initiative to start the team, so the summer after my freshman year, I did a bunch of research about how to start the team and how to get contact and started making posts.
“There was a lot of interest right off the bat,” she added. “In the beginning, we were having little get-togethers over at Parkside, and right off the bat, there were probably 15 girls, and they just started meeting us there, even though we had no coaches or any real team. We were just practicing and learning the game and having fun.”
Columbus North coach Maddisyn Jenkins talks to her team at halftime of a girls lacrosse game this season.
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Maddisyn Jenkins stepped in as the coach, and she hasn’t regretted it.
“(Assistant coach) Miranda (Cross) and I, we talk about the players and their attitudes and their mindset,” Jenkins said. “We are so lucky as coaches to have players with that, and I feel like it will draw more. I’m really excited.”
The team practiced in the offseason once or twice a week at Schmitt Elementary. During the season, they practiced at the PAAL fields on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays with games on Saturdays and some weeknights.
Columbus North’s Kate Ellis, right, defends a Roncalli player during a girls lacrosse game this season.
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The Bull Dogs outscored their opponents 134-45. Jones led the way with 60 goals, with Boezeman adding 35 and Kasey Kelley 26. Jayden Cross recorded 18 assists, with Kate Ellis and Kelley each adding four. Goalies Kaitlyn Nester and Dayna Butterworth combined for a 64% save percentage.
“I definitely knew we had a strong team,” Jenkins said. “These girls, they rise to the occasion. I have a few little works when I coach, and one of them is ‘fire.’ When you have that fire, you have that motivation. Being intentional, that desire to win, not only to win, but to fight back and stand up to the occasion and the challenge. All of these girls, they’ve been able to do that. But once we started winning games, it was like, ‘OK guys, you have to keep it going now. You can’t go this far and drop it now.”
The 2023 Columbus North girls lacrosse team.
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Orme is hoping that despite heavy losses to graduation, she can help lead the Bull Dogs to another successful season as a senior.
“I’m really excited to play for the high school team next year,” Orme said. “I know we’re going to be missing out on a lot of our seniors, but I hope as I become a senior, I can be a good role model for the girls and we can all learn from one another and just help to bring to what Jayden and Liberty have brought to this team. Having this really good season is definitely going to help me this next season next year,” Orme said. “It definitely helps me have something to reflect on. I can look at how we can all improve as a team together.”
“This season is something that you’re never going to forget,” Jones added. “It’s something that I’m always going to look back on. Even though we may have had some rough games and times where we thought we were just going to give up, we pulled through and were able to come out on top.”
