BILLINGS — Kaitlyn Foster’s passion was waning.
Ever since she first picked up a lacrosse stick around the age of 5, the centuries-old sport originated by Indian tribes of North America appealed to her. The speed of the game. The physicality. The endurance the game required.
By middle school Foster was participating in five sports, but lacrosse was the only one that made the demands of the athlete that she was looking for. So, Foster made it her goal to play college lacrosse one day.
Years of playing began to wear on her and a back injury her sophomore year of high school left her dealing with a lot of pain. Some of the fun was gone, and the thought of a future in lacrosse drifted further and further from her mind.
“I was pretty frustrated with the sport, and for a while I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to play in college,” Foster said.
Besides, even if Foster was fully healthy, getting a college scholarship for a Montana player, especially at the NCAA Division I level that she was seeking, is a tough task.
Despite the growth of the sport, most recruitment still centers around the traditional areas of where the game is widely popular: Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Big-time college coaches don’t venture much from their backyard because they don’t have to.
Like a switch, though, Foster suddenly found her love of lacrosse in a new light. She was feeling better and was doing well at a winter tournament in San Diego playing with one of the several local and regional travel teams she competes with.
“I was having a good weekend, and we were playing some really high-level teams, like top 25 teams in high school, and I was hanging with them,” Foster recalled. “I was just enjoying it, having fun on the field. That’s when I was like, ‘Why would I not want to play this sport?’”
Re-dedicating herself to lacrosse meant a lot of work if she wanted to reach her goal of becoming a Division I player. That meant traveling to schools like Notre Dame and Navy for their camps and competing in tournaments far away from Montana. She had to go where the college coaches are.
“I don’t even know how many emails I sent, how many times I reached out and been like, ‘Hey, I created this highlight video’ or ‘I’m coming to your camp,’ ” said Foster, who also credited her Rimrock Lacrosse club coach Hudson Gentile with helping her rediscover her love of the game. “A lot of times I never even got a response, because I’m not from the right area. But you just had to keep advocating for yourself.”
Foster’s efforts finally paid off. Playing at a Florida tournament this November the week after the state volleyball tournament (Foster is an all-state libero for Billings Central), she caught the eye of the coaching staff from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Originally, the plan was for Foster to attend Lowell’s prospect camp over Memorial Day. But as the staff continued to view Foster’s highlights, they told her they’d seen enough, that they didn’t need to also see her on the field.
By March, Foster committed to Lowell to become the first Division I lacrosse player recruited from Billings.
To Rimrock Lacrosse coach Gentile that’s quite an accomplishment in itself.
“She’s doing something huge,” Gentile said. “Whether she consciously does it or not, she’s obviously going to inspire a lot of players now and players in the future.”
Gentile, who came to Montana two years ago to coach club lacrosse with a former teammate, played high school lacrosse in Baltimore County, Md., an area she said remains one of the most competitive places in the country. Then it was off to play Division I at Jacksonville University, where, incidentally, Bozeman’s Eloise Trafton is a sophomore on the Dolphins’ lacrosse team.
Players from Montana — or anywhere out of the lacrosse mainstream — can have a stigma attached to them, Gentile said. But it’s players like Foster, Trafton and others that can help overcome that and give hope to younger girls back home.
“I think it could have effects at the younger level as well as helping pave the road for older girls to continue to pursue those recruiting opportunities more,” Gentile said. “I think (players) are discouraged now, because they don’t see it very often. But I think girls seeing that Kaitlyn and other girls have gone through it, they’re going to realize ‘I can do it, too’ and be a little less discouraged.”
In joining UMass Lowell of the America East conference, Foster will be part of a program that has made great strides since building from the ground up in 2015.
The River Hawks had their first winning season last year and went 11-7 overall and 5-1 in the conference this year before falling in the league tournament semifinals earlier this month. On a roster of 37 players, only five were seniors, and overall, 24 of the 37 players were sophomores or freshmen.
Foster said she chose Lowell because it promised her a large amount of academic freedom and is one of the programs that has looked to expand its roster from outside the usual footprint. This year’s squad included players from Oregon, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Utah.
And now Montana. The responsibility, to herself and to other Montana girls, isn’t lost on her.
“I just want to keep being who I know I can be, because I know that I’m a hard worker and I know I can earn playing time,” said Foster, who plays midfield. “Eyes are obviously going to be on me over there, so I want to make a good example of what Billings kids or Montana kids are like.
“I want to be that good example. So, it’s a great feeling, like, it’s super cool to be able to say I’m the first (from Billings). But I’d say there’s definitely some pressure with that.”
Foster seems ready for that pressure and appears to welcome it. The passion she first felt for lacrosse is definitely back.
