Mentally, she’s always focused on the preparation that goes into getting her to where she is today.
“Confidence is something that’s always under construction, no matter who you are or what you do,” said Moorestown native Marie McCool. “Going out there and playing to be the best teammate that I can be… When you go out there and you’re a good teammate, then things fall into place.”
McCool was an active kid that always loved sports, even before she was old enough to play. Moorestown rec soccer was her first introduction to team sports when she was in kindergarten, and she would go on to play soccer, basketball, softball and lacrosse, which came along when she was in third grade. At that time, her parents had seen other kids playing so they got her a lacrosse stick for Christmas and the rest is history. The fast paced, speed of lacrosse is what captivates McCool, but the other piece is that every player has their own unique playing style.
‘If you look at the history of some of the best players to ever play the sport, there are some similarities with some players and then there’s other players that have completely different styles to their game, and so that’s something that I think I always loved, is that every single person has their own unique playing style and when you bring those styles together, it creates a team,” McCool said.
McCool, one of 20 players and coaches in the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL), was named MVP of the Lexus WLL All-Star Game in Annapolis on July 5 after scoring the game-winning goal in a matchup featuring many of the world’s best players. With 45 seconds remaining in regulation of the All-Star Game, McCool backed down her defender and flipped a backhanded shot on goal to give Team Izzy a 16-15 win over Team Humphrey. McCool finished the game with two goals and one assist.
McCool believes that it’s a lot easier said than done to be confident but falling back on how much she’s prepared for the biggest moments of her sports career is something that she always thinks about. That’s her mindset with every game she goes into, and focusing on being a good teammate helps her play more freely rather than only focusing on what she needs to do herself.
“That’s what I’ve learned over my career, and I would say that that’s something that hasn’t always come easy,” McCool said. “I think it’s really hard to not think about your own performance because we’re competitors and we want to be great and we want to play great, so that’s something that I’ve learned over time and it’s something that has taken time for me to get better at, but just focusing on being a great teammate and thinking about all the preparation that’s gone into getting me where I am today helps me play more free.”
If the Lexus WLL All-Star Game MVP could share a piece of advice with her fellow athletes, it would be to control what you can control and keep one thing in mind.
“Playing sports can be stressful at times but just remember why we all do this,” she said. “It’s because we love it, it’s because we have fun and when things are out of your control and you think very deeply about that, it can really make you mentally spiral. When you focus on the things that you can control like your work ethic, your energy, your positivity and being a good teammate, then everything else will fall into place.”
The WLL Championship will bring added local significance to the region, with 20 WLL players and coaches having Philadelphia-area ties through their hometowns, high schools, colleges or current residences across the league. Should the California Palms clinch a spot in the inaugural WLL Championship, which will take place in Philadelphia on Saturday, Aug. 15, that moment will feel full circle for McCool because during her time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she currently coaches, she and her lacrosse team won a national championship match that happened in the city. She wouldn’t be the person or the athlete she is today without her parents and her grandparents, who emigrated from China to Philadelphia, she said, so to be able to play in a championship game in the city would mean so much.
“Being surrounded by lacrosse every single day and the players that I get to coach inspire me every day to continue to do what I love,” McCool said. “Being able to play the game that I love and hopefully inspire the next generation of female lacrosse players, and also to play with different people that I haven’t played with before is something that I really enjoy.”
