Play Like a B’ee

Carol Rose has the most wins out of any high school girls lacrosse coach in New York State history. Approaching her 30th season at the helm of Northport High School, she sits at the top with 409 wins, and we’re still counting. In a recent interview with Coach Rose, she was asked about how it feels to have so many wins, she replied, “It feels good. It was definitely a bucket list of mine.” What’s most impressive, as time goes on, her passion grows, her love for coaching deepens, and her program(s) just keep getting better.

In 1990, Coach Rose started the girls lacrosse program at Northport High School. High School girls lacrosse in suffolk county during the early nineties centered around six main communities, establishing themselves as the ‘Original 6.’ Those six communities included: Northport, Huntington, Harborfields, Whitman, Smithtown, and Ward Melville. As Coach Rose was building up girls lacrosse in Northport, she was teaching in Wyandanch and working her way to become the next Athletic Director. After earning that title in 2001, Coach Rose directed athletics in Wyandanch while she was coaching at Northport. Soon enough, Carol started teaching full-time in Northport, where she would remain as the Head Coach of the girls lacrosse team.

Scrolling through Carol’s 29 seasons as Head Coach of Northport girls lacrosse, there is definitely one season in particular that stands out amongst the rest. In 2011, the Tigers put together a run like no other, earning their first ever Class A New York State Championship. This team was led by one of Northport’s most legendary alumni, Shannon Gilroy (Florida). During Northport’s State Championship game, the conditions were almost unplayable. A game that started a 2pm stretched a total of 7 hours, including 2 rain delays! The clock was about to strike 9PM and the Tigers fell behind by 1 in OT. With little time left on the clock, Shannon Gilroy scored the game tying goal while falling to ground in agony. She had torn her ACL while tying the NYS State Championship game. As Shannon was being carried off the field after the game tying goal, Coach Rose turned to her team and said, “Let’s do this for Shannon, do this for Shannon!” This message sunk into the team and stood out for one rising star in particular, Courtney Fortunato.

The game went into its second OT when Courtney, just a sophomore at the time, stepped up and scored the game winning goal to give Northport their first and only New York State Championship. For Gilroy, she  healed and went on to become a 3X All-American at Florida, 2X Tewaaraton Finalist, Team USA player, and is currently coaching college lacrosse at West Point. For Fortunato, she went on to earn herself All-American status three times in High School. Courtney  built on the momentum from her State Championship win to compete for the U-19 USA team at the World Games in Germany. In the summer of 2011, Fortunato led Team USA to the gold medal, earned All-World Honors and led the team in goals and points. Fortunato finished her career at Northport as a 3X All-American and her career at Notre Dame as 4X Collegiate All-American. After asking Coach Rose about other notable Northport alums she said, “Jill Byers (Notre Dame), Dorrien Van Dyke (Stony Brook), Jenny McNamara (Brown) and Meg McNamara (Maryland).” What’s interesting, all three of those standouts went on to pursue a career in coaching. Despite having some incredible players coming through Northport’s program, it’s safe to say Northport has never seen a team like the 2011 State Championship group.

Success is measured by achievement, and defined differently for coaches across all sports. For some, success is defined by wins or Championships. For Coach Rose, success is defined by her player’s preparedness for life itself. She prepares her players through, “lessons on accountability, demanding a strong work ethic, and by making players better.” If creating a program that year after year prepares young women for what’s ahead isn’t a strong enough definition for success, feel free to look at what Carol Rose has done during her time as a Head Coach over the last 30 years.

  • 125 Division 1 Athletes Northport High School Program
  • 100 High School All-Americans Northport High School Program
  • 11X Suffolk County Championships
  • 7X Long Island Championships
  • 4X Empire State Games Gold Medalist
  • 3X UA Underclass Championships
  • 3X U-15 National Championships
  • 3X Founders Cup Champions (Best Team in Suffolk County)
  • 2X NYS Semi-Finalist
  • 2X UA All-America Senior North Team Championships
  • 2X NYS Class A Finalist
  • 1X NYS Class A Champion

Earlier in the article there’s mention of Coach Rose’s program(s) continuing to get better. In long island lacrosse, the best High School coaches are usually involved in more than one program. Many of High School’s elite coaches work within the club world as well. For Coach Rose, she created what’s now the ‘club lacrosse world’ here on Long Island. What many people wonder, how did she build her Yellow Jacket club lacrosse program to become what it is today? If you ask Coach Rose, the answer is simple, “lacrosse is my world, always has been. I simply put everything I had into into it.”  

In the 90’s, Coach Rose heard there was some unbelievable lacrosse being played down in Maryland. So, she decided to bring some girls from the Original 6 towns down to Maryland one season to compete in a tournament. To her surprise the results were lopsided. Maryland dominated her all-star group of Suffolk girls laxers. From that day on, she made it her mission to go down there and beat Maryland’s best of the best. The next summer, Coach Rose had waves of parents calling her about going down to Maryland to compete. By popular demand, Coach Rose decided to form teams and travel to the Mid-Atlantic. Before you knew it, she was competing with the country’s best high school and eventually, youth girls club lacrosse teams.

Today, Coach Rose has over 700 girls competing in her travel lacrosse programs. An impressive feat, considering it all started with a coaches passion, one team, and the drive to compete against the best. Coach Rose went on to talk about why she loves the club lacrosse, saying, “There’s nothing like a group of talented girls competing in front of tons of college coaches. That experience gives each girl an opportunity to get exposure, play under pressure, and get one step closer to pursuing their dreams of playing at the next level.” After talking to Coach Rose about the evolution of her club lacrosse program, she makes mention of a few people, including Mary Parr, who used to lead the Huntington girls lacrosse program.  Coach Rose said, “Mary was instrumental in getting quality, competitive girls together in order to travel for events.” Coach Rose also credits her husband, Al Rose, who has been right by her side ever since the inception of Yellow Jackets and Northport girls lacrosse.

Al Rose is 62 years young, carries a 12 pack on his abs, exudes life, excitement, discipline, and passion for coaching. When asking Coach Al about what gets him up every day he said, “the gym. I’m up at 4AM every day, never miss a day.” This type of discipline definitely helps explain why Coach Al is shredded. It also explains why he’s so detail oriented when it comes to coaching his girls. From running the defense to helping his girls through off-season weight training, Coach Al always pays close attention to the details. An interesting thing that Coach Al does, is supply each player on the Northport girls team, a note-card. Those cards can accumulate stickers for showing up and working hard. This not only teaches his girls in importance of consistency and hard work, it teaches them accountability. The Northport girls are held accountable for working hard throughout the year, being in game shape, and developing as athletes. Teaching accountability is one of the many positive traits associated with Coach Al and Coach Carol’s girls lacrosse program. Another positive is teaching young women how to play under pressure.

After losing a high-pressure, intense, and emotional County Championship in 2018, Coach Rose searched for valuable advice to share with her girls. For Coach Rose, she saw last year’s loss as an opportunity to grow as a program, teach an important lesson, and move forward. After doing some digging, Coach Rose discovered a quote that she was nice enough to share.

“Don’t let your fear of the outcome cause you to crumble in the moment. Instead be honest about your desire and then let go of the results.”

Coach Rose went on to say, “It’s okay for my girls to say I want to win! But, I don’t want them worrying about the outcome. Because if they don’t focus as much on the outcome, they can be their best in the moment.” A true coach takes what might seem like a catastrophic event for a varsity athlete, and turns it into a teachable moment. Moving into 2019, Coach Rose has other points of emphasis for her girls. Some of the main ones include taking care of the ball, making good decisions with the ball, developing their young talent so their team can have more depth, and get everyone to step up every day so the team can constantly perform at a high level.

After talking to Coach Al and Coach Carol, Northport girls lacrosse no longer seems like a High School program at all. Instead, it seems like a high level women’s collegiate program. Granted, Northport High School doesn’t have all bells and whistles that come with playing for an ACC or Big Ten women’s lacrosse program. Coach Rose joked about sitting on the gym floor for meetings instead of leather couches with custom embroidered Tiger logos on them. But, if you hear what Coach Rose’s girls do to train, develop, learn, and compete, you start to understand why her girls feel prepared for life after High School.

It’s always interesting to see High School coaches running programs like a college. Makes you think, “why isn’t that coach in the college game?” When we asked Coach Rose why she decided to stick with High School she said, “I initially thought I wanted to be an Athletic Director and coach too.” For fun, we discussed which program Coach Rose would take over if she decided to retire as a High School teacher and coach, she went on saying, “Miami. South Beach, come on, what would be better than that?!” Who would your staff be? “Al as Defensive Coordinator and Gary Gait as Head Coach.”

This Spring marks a new chapter for Coach Carol Rose and her Northport Tigers. We are excited to follow her team’s journey. We are excited to witness stars being born, memories made, and records broken. You can follow Coach Rose, Northport girls lax and the yellow jackets all season long by tuning into Twitter @LIYELLOWJACKETS or Instagram @li_yellowjackets #LoveTheGame

Words By, Corey Winkoff

 

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