Saving the day

By Nick Cammuso
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT May 18, 2009 01:50 am

— You know the endpoint — goal after goal, the undefeated season, the state championship hardware that’s reserved a spot in the Fairmont Senior trophy case.
The Polar Bear girls’ lacrosse team, though, had humble beginnings. Most of this year’s senior class had not played the sport, had done little else than pick up a stick, until their first high school game.
Kacci Skinner was no different.
Turned into a goalie her freshman season, she wasn’t quite sure how to play the position. Even attempting to stop the ball was a challenge at first.
“She was scared. She’d duck it every time,” Fairmont Senior coach Jon Cain said.
Fast forward three years, and the fear is long gone.
“Now, she does everything she can to keep it out,” Cain laughed. “With the shin guards, with the hands, the chest, the stick ... whatever it takes. I’ve even seen her swat at the ball like she’s playing handball to knock it back out.”
Skinner came through when Fairmont Senior needed her most in Saturday’s WVSLA state title game against Morgantown, making several key stops late to preserve an 11-9 victory. In the process, the Polar Bears wrapped up a 17-0 season and a second straight championship.
The senior came up huge with seven second-half saves. Among Skinner’s bigger moments came in the final three minutes when she stopped a Mohigans’ sideout attempt to keep it a two-goal advantage.
“Kaci was afraid to catch the ball. I was afraid to shoot. And now I’m running through 10 people and she has balls flying at her left and right. It’s just amazing,” Fairmont Senior’s Hannah Nagowski said.
“I just tried to keep my eye on the ball and pump myself up as much as I could,” Skinner said.
The performance is even more impressive when one considers the amount of downtime Skinner has had this season. Aside from Saturday’s game and a one-goal overtime victory at Erie McDowell (Pa.) in the regular season, the Polar Bears had rarely been tested.
After all, when a team averages 18 goals per game and spends the bulk of its time on the offensive end, the goalie probably won’t see much action.
“It’s tough,” Cain said. “It’s like a goalie in soccer. If a ball is never in your area and then here it comes, you suddenly have to kick that aggression and intensity back on again. It’s sometimes tough to do that, especially when you have a three-minute stretch where the ball doesn’t cross midfield. But she’s been able to stay focused.”
And saved the best for last.
Back to the future
While Jarrott Brogdon just finished his first season coaching the Fairmont Senior boys, several of the team’s players, including seniors Travis DeVault and Tyler Ross, have known him for years.
“I’ve been with coach Brogdon since the eighth grade,” DeVault said. “He had a fall league in Washington, Pa., and my dad would drive us up every week on a Wednesday.
“When we were freshmen we always talked about coach Brogdon, how good of a coach he was. And now he’s our coach our senior year. ... As soon I heard that, we all thought we’d have a chance (to win a state title).”
That chance turned into something real Saturday, as the Polar Bear boys edged Morgantown, 9-8, for their first state championship.
“There’s been ups and downs — (coach Brogdon) is pretty tough — but it was definitely worth it,” DeVault said.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Taking one for the team took a different twist last week for the Polar Bear boys.
In a symbol of team unity — or just a case of teenagers being teenagers — all but a few of the team’s players cut their hair in a mohawk in the days leading up to Saturday’s game.
Assistant coach Mike DeVault also got into the act, promising he’d do the same if Fairmont Senior pulled out a victory.
“It looks great. He looks better than I do,” Travis DeVault, his son, said.
E-mail Nick Cammuso at ncammuso@timeswv.com.

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