Lady Patriots girls lacrosse head coach Brittany Susnow leads the team in drills on a Friday afternoon practice as she gets pumped for the upcoming season.

“They’re a great team so I hope we win a lot and it’s going to be awesome,” Susnow said. “Also just traveling on the bus with them. I haven’t done that since high school so it will be awesome to live that again.”

This will be Susnow’s first year coaching the Lady Patriots. She is also a mathematics teacher at Birmingham Community Charter High School (BCCHS).

“I think she’s great,” junior and junior varsity captain Karen Ticas said. “She’s a great coach and very sweet.”

The girls have been running old and new drills along with new plays in order to prepare for the upcoming season.

“We’ve been doing a lot of plays, introducing new plays and a lot of drills to fix up things they needed to work on last from last season,” Susnow said. “Just a lot of conditioning, a lot of running, a lot of sprinting, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, all that stuff.”

Last season the Lady Patriots went 14-8 and won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship but lost the first game in the regional playoffs. The team will be looking to do as good as they did last year.

“I’m really looking forward to pretty much just playing and being out on the field,” junior and varsity player Maria Ruiz said. “I’m really excited to see what the season brings.”

The team has also focused on working on communication and becoming closer as a team.

“The girls are so caring, they’re so helpful,” Susnow said. “They always give me good feedback which I love to hear because I love to reflect on my work. They bring in some great drills that will help the team and they’re just all very resourceful women.”