Picking Up the Whistle: Due to her recent ACL tear, senior Claire Schudy will be the Shawnee Mission Girls Lacrosse team’s goalie coach and defensive coordinator

Walking through her front door after a Hauberk late-night work session, senior Claire Schudy found her parents sitting on her couch with serious looks in their eyes. 

Her heart dropped. “Who in the family died?” she asked. 

Nobody had died — her parents had just heard the results of her MRI scan: a full ACL tear. Schudy broke down in tears knowing this was the end of her nine-year lacrosse career.

“I had my heart set on playing my senior season, and I’ve been playing in every game the past three years,” Schudy said. “I take so much pride and joy in playing and being a part of the team.”

After playing starting goalie since freshman year and keeping a two-year winning streak, Schudy was still determined to contribute to the Shawnee Mission Girls’ Lacrosse team despite her knee injury. This year she’s acting as the SMGL goalie coach and defensive coordinator — making her the team’s only teenage coach. 

Her knee pains started after jumping around at a school-wide pep assembly in September. She landed wrong and instantly felt her knee pop. She then again re-injured her knee in November miss-stepping over a curb. Once her knee pains started to worsen, she decided to get an MRI on her knee, to confirm nothing was torn or injured. She didn’t think anything was actually wrong with her knee.

It took Schudy many days to finally process the fact her ACL was fully torn, she knew she would eventually need surgery, but she had to decide if she would do the surgery before or after the season.

“I was either going to give up my senior lacrosse season or my whole summer and the beginning of my college experience,” Schudy said. 

If she received surgery as soon as possible, she would still be sitting on the bench for the entirety of her senior lacrosse season. And if she waited to get surgery until after the season, she would be unable to play at her full capacity due to the limited range of motion in her knee. 

Prior to her injury, Schudy was hoping to be the varsity team captain. She was a player who used her skills and leadership to benefit the team to the point where her coach, Aidan McEnery, thought she was the senior captain when she was only a junior. 

“Even the girls that were above her respected her,” SMGL head coach Aidan McEnerney said. “She has this presence that makes everybody feel appreciated and also makes everybody want to work a little bit harder.”

After she was injured, McEnerney and Schudy grabbed coffee at a local coffee shop to discuss her role as goalie coach. During their conversation, McEnerney expressed that she still wanted Schudy as team captain — something she had no intention of expecting because of her injury. In that moment, Schudy stood up from the table and hugged her coach. 

“Even though I’m not physically on the field, she still trusts me to lead the team,” Schudy said. “That just meant a lot.”

Schudy is currently two months into her recovery process — having had her surgery on Dec. 29 — and is already able to work with the team’s new goalie, junior Amelia Stinson.

“I’ve had lots of coaches who have tried to help with goalies but it’s really difficult because when you’re not in there, you don’t understand,” Stinson said. “She understands [playing goalie] and she’s really good at explaining all the techniques you should use.”

Schudy hopes to teach Stinson the skills she has acquired in playing lacrosse since third grade and lead the team to another championship title.

“I’m taking those skills and things that I remember doing when I was a beginner that helped my footwork, my speed and my hand-eye coordination.” Schudy said, “It’s the small things that end up building up to the big things.”

Although Schudy will be spending her very last season playing lacrosse on the sidelines — as she doesn’t plan to play after high school — she hopes to do as much as she can from the the bench, motivating her teammates to remain successful throughout the season. 

“I couldn’t ever not be a part of [the team] because Shawnee Mission Girls Lacrosse has been such an impactful part of my life,”  Schudy said. “It’s helped me become the person I am today.”