Trailblazing female box lacrosse athletes catch 2 championship wins

PLYMOUTH — It’s lacrosse season, and the New Hampshire Hot Shots girls lacrosse team is still riding high from two recent championship wins.

Despite the high costs and physical intensity of box lacrosse, which is played in a hockey rink with five players on each team, fully-masked goalies and no long sticks, the program has achieved significant success, including two major championships against well-established teams from traditional lacrosse hubs.

“Literally girls were crying. I was crying because I was like, ‘Oh my god, we did it. This was unheard of, and it was just such a big moment for us,” said Kristin Tracy, founder of NH Hot Shots and team coach.

“The second time around, I was like, 'Holy s***, I can't believe we just won again.'”

The first championship, which took place in Connecticut, landed two of her student-athletes in the emergency department, proving how hard the girls fought for their victories.

“The Connecticut one was just a crazy championship game,” Tracy said. “The other team sent two of my girls to the hospital with injuries. It was just a very physical game.”

The second contest was in Philadelphia. Tracy wasn’t sure they’d win any of the games slated for that day.

“Our Pennsylvania game was a wild game, but we lost [the first one], won our next two, and played in the semifinals. We beat [that team], beat a team from Long Island. It was 5-0; after game, game, game, the girls were gassed,” Tracy said. “They just were like, ‘We're determined, we're going to win it.’”

And win they did.

“It is almost unheard of that a team from New Hampshire would ever win these tournaments,” Tracy said.

The NH Hot Shots girls box lacrosse team includes many athletes from Plymouth and throughout Grafton and Belknap counties. A sport normally dominated by men, NH Hot Shots is looking to make its mark with its roster of trailblazers in the fast-paced sport, who range in ages from fifth to eighth grade.

Girls box lacrosse is still emerging, especially in regions like New Hampshire. A staple in Canada, box lacrosse is often more physically active, physically demanding and intent on strategic plays.

But Tracy’s teams do much more than simply play lacrosse. They visit college campuses, to open a world of opportunities for blooming lacrosse players.

According to the NH Hot Shots website, “The program quickly distinguished itself by combining high-level competitive tournament play with immersive college visit experiences. Players traveled to college campuses and universities across the country, gaining firsthand exposure to the next level of women’s lacrosse. Leveraging Coach Tracy’s extensive network of collegiate coaching connections, these experiences included meetings with college coaches and teams, tours of athletic facilities, and opportunities to experience campus life. The goal was simple yet powerful: to help players dream bigger and gain a true understanding of what is possible beyond youth lacrosse.”

Founded in 2023 by Tracy, who works full-time as a detective for the Campton Police Department, she said the players have built something truly special, and helped put New Hampshire on the national box lacrosse map. Considering the sport was created by men and played with boys lacrosse sticks, the girls are shattering glass ceilings left and right.

“Where we live, there's just really not a lot of really great opportunities, in central or northern New Hampshire for lacrosse. So if they wanted to play club lacrosse, they would have to go at least to Bedford, if not further,” Tracy said. “So I established this program, called New Hampshire Hot Shots.”

Box lacrosse differs from regular lacrosse in many ways. Box lacrosse relies heavily on using pick plays to create separation for players to get shots off. The game being played in tighter quarters than the field game requires soft hands to catch passes in traffic, and more deceptive shooting, because unlike in field lacrosse where you have a giant goal and a goalie wearing mostly just chest protection, box is played on a goal similar to a hockey goal, and face a goalie padded up like an NHL pro.

And Tracy’s student-athletes are thriving in the environment.

“I think what makes Hot Shots so great is that we intentionally stay small. We don't want to be a club, like a full-blown club team of hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of kids. The great thing about Hot Shots is that we're small and it's that family-like atmosphere. The kids get the personalized attention and the coaching, and now with this national team, we can sit down with them and watch film, and critique their form and look at what they're doing. They can't get that at a regular club team, because there's just too many kids,” Tracy said.

“We never want to lose sight of the reason why we started. Let's stay true to that.

"This is about the relationships, the families and the girls to have that exposure. These kids now that have been a part of my program, they're going to go and get recruited probably by a Division I school, which is crazy.”

For more information, visit hotshotslax.com/box-lacrosse.

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Katlyn Proctor can be reached at katlyn@laconiadailysun.com or by calling 603-524-0150.