Tying Connections: SMGL’s new assistant coach, Mae Beins, emphasizes team culture

Sitting on a white chair in front of a packed living room full of high school girls, Mae Beins clears her throat and begins.

“Love isn’t about letting things slide,” she reads. “It’s about setting high standards and consistently holding your teammates to those standards.”

After she finishes the first four chapters of “The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams,” and explains the reflection activity for the night, the room fills with chatter. Then, each girl throws out words they want the team to embody, before settling on three.

Supportive, accountable, resilient.

After that first book club session, Beins — the SM girls lacrosse team’s new assistant coach — has since used the words to motivate the team during practices and games. After only eight months with the team, starting with the team’s fall practices, the girls can already attest to her impact.

“Immediately Mae filled [our old coach’s] shoes even further to what I imagined,” senior Emily McShane said. “She brought this new light to the team. [Beins] is just the sweetest person ever. I absolutely love her.” 

From neatly lining up their sticks before warmups — pockets facing down, heads on the sideline — to stretching in lines of four people, everything, down to each player wearing identical white socks, has become routine: all implemented since the beginning of the season.

For Beins, it’s the little things that count. The little things that add up to make one cohesive team. The little things that connect players and create a thriving team culture — one of her main goals as a coach.

“I talk about the little things all the time,” Beins said. “I really think that’s what makes such a good —not only player — but person. I’ve been very privileged to have learned all of that and so bringing it into the culture aspect has been really important for me.”

Practices end with “The Chair of Truth,” a game where one player sits on the ball bucket while being questioned by teammates.

“Who’s your celebrity crush?”

“What’s your favorite school subject?”

“What motivates you?”

These questions, whether silly or deep, help Beins and other players get to know each other on a personal level — a challenge as a new coach of 52 players. But, slowly, each name is starting to stick.

“She builds really strong relationships with every single girl, and it doesn’t matter how long she’s known them,” Head Coach Kelly Marion said. “She brings so much more outside of lacrosse to it.”

The three lacrosse coaches — Beins, Marion and Assistant Coach Maryssa Barnhill — played together at Rockhurst University, leading them to coaching together. Beins, one year younger than both Marion and Barnhill, experienced changes to the team culture her senior year at Rockhurst. 

This included their own book club, where Beins was first introduced to “The Twin Thieves." Now, she’s brought lessons she’s learned and bonding activities to Shawnee Mission.

“I was a little disappointed that we were having book club instead of practices, and we started reading the book and I was like, ‘Why are we doing this?’” McShane said. “But after a couple pages it made me realize it's not only about the way you play on the field, but your mentality outside of the field and how you interact with your teammates.” 

At Beins’ second book club session, reading chapters five through seven, the players worked to create a team phrase. Something that would always be theirs.

They submitted answers ranging from “Be a goldfish” to “All in, all out” to be voted on at their next practice.

“That’s what separates our team too, doing these team culture things,” Marion said. “I feel like in the hardest moments, especially in tough games, we’re able to come back together and go over the three core things that we all agreed on as a team. It builds such a loving structure for each other.”

Supportive, accountable, resilient. 

The core words have followed the team through their ups — beating Lee Summit West High School 19-0 — and downs — losing to St. Teresa’s High School 19-8 — but have kept them exactly that, a team.

“[Beins] loves everything that she does and she puts so much passion into everything that she does,” Marion said. “It just reminds you of why you joined the sport.”