Sibling goalies form a unique duo at North Catholic
unit into a group that has shown significant improvement over the course of the season.
“He’s good at knowing where the ball is, first of all. We have a couple of different packages and he’s good at keeping our defense knowing what their responsibilities are,” North Catholic boys coach Don Bryant said. “He keeps them right where they’re supposed to be.”
Conversely, Kinsey is the youngster on a veteran defense and had to earn the trust of her teammates by her abilities. As the season has progressed, she has become more of a leader and director for the Trojanettes on that side of the field.
“She’s played for me for a number of years and I’ve kind of watched her grow as a player. Being a freshman with the majority of the team being upperclassmen, I think she was, not intimidated, but growing in her confidence a little bit,” North Catholic girls coach Lexi Rzempoluch said.
Having that kind of home support system has been integral to their development. Not only has it aided Kinsey to take the reins of a North Catholic defense and push the team into postseason contention, it helped get Noah to the next level as he will play at Saint Vincent next year.
And it also made the choice to play lacrosse as a primary instead of a secondary sport an easy one.
“I did other sports, but lacrosse had so much action and I’m always moving around and doing something,” Noah said. “It’s something that you don’t get in a lot of sports and, since I have a young defense in front of me, it’s just really nice directing and helping them go and seeing them get better.”
That type of energy and dedication also kept Kinsey enamored by the sport. She also studies her brother’s game and implements many of the finer points and minutia in developing her own unique skill set.
“His clears and watching him clear the ball and play the ball out and transition is the way I want to play my ball,” Kinsey said. “My best is probably my clears and I picked that up from him.”
Still, having a brother-sister combination playing in goal for a lacrosse team is extremely unique. Other siblings have played the same sport and even the same position, such as basketball guards or baseball-softball pitchers, but lacrosse goalie is so unique, especially in an area where it’s not most athletes’ primary sport makes it rarer still.
“I’ve never seen it and it’s not common even though I’ve seen brothers and sisters play lacrosse, but not as goalies,” Rzempoluch said. “I think it’s cool because Noah has coached Kinsey and kind of helped her out and I think Kinsey looks up to Noah as a goalie. Jay, the dad, he knows what both of them need and he approaches them differently because boys and girls are different and their games are both very different.”