The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
What’s the toughest position in prep sports?
Think running backs in football or catchers in softball and baseball have it tough? Trying being a lacrosse goalie. At least hockey goaltenders have more padding. John Kampf weighs in.
It was a hot, muggy day last weekend as I leaned on the dugout at Lee Jackson Field at the University of Akron, feeling bad for South’s senior catcher Kristen Jesberger.
The temperatures were climbing, humidity was on the rise, and there was Jesberger decked out head to toe in catcher’s gear. Hot day, muggy conditions and being weighed down by all that catching gear...
“That,” I thought to myself,” has got to be the worst position to play in high school sports.”
But it got me thinking on my drive home.
What would be the position I’d least like to play in any high school sport.
• Being a running back in football is perilous because there are 11 defenders who want to pound you into the ground every time someone puts the ball in your hands.
• Cross country and track don’t count — just because I have enough trouble driving 3.1 miles let alone running that distance in cross country.
• The aforementioned catcher’s position in baseball and softball came to mind, too.
But as I walked down the aisle way at Oberlin College on May 30, I found my winner in the race for the worst position to play in high school sports.
There walking toward me was Chagrin Falls junior Celeste Bunker, goalkeeper for her school’s girls lacrosse team.
She was a walking bruise.
*Ding, Ding, Ding* we have a winner. Or loser. The most difficult position to play in high school sports has got to be goalkeeper in lacrosse.
The job description is standing in front of a net with minimal padding, a helmet, a glove and a stick while players from the opposing team rifle hardrubber balls at you at point-blank range.
Remember that scene from the movie “Happy Gilmour” where Adam Sandler went to the batting cages and stood on top of home plate while baseballs out of the pitching machine continuously hammered off his body?
That’s what it’s like to be a lacrosse goalkeeper. Yeah, no thanks. “Basically, yeah, I’ll throw myself in front of a shot to make sure it doesn’t go in,” Bunker said. “One time during a JV game, one hit me right in the neck. It left a huge welt on my neck for the next few weeks.”
Who signs up to do that?
Surprisingly at least one, or maybe two, per team do.
Such as Chagrin Falls’ boys lacrosse team’s goalkeeper Otto Bergmann. While Bunker has been in the goal since fifth grade, Bergmann has been the last line of defense on his team since he was 6 years old.
“I like being the last line of defense,” he said. “I played midfield one year, didn’t like it, so I went back to the goal.”
Goalkeeping is in his blood. His uncle played collegiately at Harvard. His father was a goalkeeper, too.
“I guess it’s in my blood,” Bergmann said with a shrug. “I said, ‘Hey, why not stay in the cage?’ and I’ve been there ever since.”
Bergmann said he is only armed with a chest pad, helmet, cup, glove and stick — just enough to cover the vitals.
But when an opposing player rears back and rifles a two-handed laser beam from a few feet away, he has to find a way to not only block it, but maybe even try to catch it.
“My parents worry,” he said with a laugh. “They want me to go to middle or attack so I don’t have to keep coming home and putting ice packs on myself. “I know I’m not going to score, but that’s OK. My aim has never been very good anyway.”
Bunker chuckled when asked about her last goal. She said she scored in eighth grade, but then paused and giggled.
“Well, unless you count scoring on yourself,” she said. “Because I did that earlier this season. It happens.”
Bunker reached down and rubbed a deep purple bruise on her right leg. That was one of the fiveto-eight shots per game that she said carom off of her body.
“Luckily, you wear a long dress to prom,” she said. “For the bruises on my arms, I put lotion on them so (the discoloration) doesn’t look so patchy.”
So yeah, being a goalkeeper in lacrosse is punishing. At least in hockey, the padding is much more thick, as is the uniform one wears — much more than the shorts and Tshirts lacrosse goalkeepers don as their uniforms.
If it weren’t illegal to do so, most keepers would probably rather strap themselves up with a few layers of bubble wrap to help repel the shots from point-blank range.
Despite it all, Bergmann and Bunker look forward to their days in the net.
Each helped get their team to the Division II state final four, and both are looking at the opportunity to do so on the college level after their high school days are over.
“It’s not just me,” Bunker said. “I wouldn’t be anywhere without my defense. I love the high-pressure feeling. It makes me want to work even harder.”
And all it costs her is a handful of bruises and a night of ice packs.
Some would think that’s crazy.
To Bergmann and Bunker, it’s a labor of love.
Sheesh!