At the sideline of the field stands the Lady Spartans lacrosse team’s new assistant coach. Trae Williams watches as his team goes from defense to offense, assisting the players with instructions and motivation.

“After I just finished three months of my son playing tackle football, my wife came home and told me that Coach Todd said that he needed help with the JV coaching since he’s the only coach out there,” Coach Trae said. “I was like, sure, so I just volunteered to help out.”

Having only playing experience from boys’ lacrosse in his sophomore year at Christian Brothers High School, Coach Trae relied on watching college women’s lacrosse on TV at the beginning of his coaching. Ready to take on all that the 2020 spring season had in store for him, he began coaching during fall ball.

“He’s really nice and is genuinely interested in helping us individually,” Olivia Gunn (10) said. “He’s made good relationships with the players, and overall, he’s a really good coach.”

With 30 new players joining the team this year, Coach Todd sought out assistance in leading practices and games. Coach Trae became the head of an additional team, JV White, consisting of players from the middle school and high school.

“Helping get all the girls to have equal playing time–it’s kinda hard because once you find a rhythm, you don’t want to sub anyone out, you want to keep what you got going, going,” Coach Trae said.“But other than that, everything is going pretty smoothly.”