At the beginning of the season, some unresolved tension lingered within Byrnes’ girls lacrosse program.
Head coach Haylee Cureton said the team had some personality differences, and after butting heads a bit in open season, the Lady Rebels had to “nip some things in the bud.”
“With a few new faces this season and some girls who hadn’t played much together, we had some ups and downs,” said Cureton. “We had to figure out what does and doesn’t work for us.”
So, Cureton implemented something her dad, Bill, had begun when he was the head coach at Byrnes for several years prior: team talks.
“Basically, my dad would create this atmosphere of letting the girls talk things out amongst themselves in a group,” said Cureton. “You have to step away as a coach for a bit, and give those girls a chance to air things out. If you’ve got something to say, say it.
“We never attack each other, but you get to speak your feelings. It feels like a group therapy session. In a sense, it kind of is.”
It’s worked wonders for the Lady Rebels, who have formed a tighter bond than ever. They’ve carried that bond to a 9-2 record, the team’s best mark in years.
“In the beginning, there was definitely a little bit of tension between everyone,” said sophomore midfielder Gemma Gerhardt. “There were a lot of new faces, and we didn’t know how to work together. There was a little bit of drama. But once everyone decided to start opening up about things they were feeling, we started to understand each other.”
“Team talks are valuable, and the reason they help so much is that they get people being open and honest with each other,” said sophomore attacker Jaylin Wilson. “It helped us solve some drama we had early in the season.”
Now? That tension has faded away. Players huddled and laughed and cracked jokes with one another after a 14-7 home win over Dorman on April 3. Sitting at 9-2 overall and 4-1 in region play, Byrnes is poised to make a deep run in the Class 5-A playoffs.
In Cureton’s first season as head coach after spending several years as an assistant under her father, she’s got her Lady Rebels playing some of the best lacrosse in the Upstate.
“I owe a lot of my success to Coach Haylee,” said Wilson. “Honestly, she’s been working with me since I was in seventh grade. I was so excited when I found out before the year that she was going to be the new head coach. We love Coach Bill [Cureton] and loved playing for him, and he has had an amazing time here. And Coach Haylee, she’s always been part of this family.”
“The amount of work she’s willing to put in with us, even outside of practice, I think that’s why we’re having so much success. It’s amazing.”
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