My guest on today’s episode of the Lax Goalie Rat podcast is Team England goalie Katie Greenwood.
Katie is coming off a busy summer where she played for Team England in the Women’s World Lacrosse Championships in Towson, MD, and took home a bronze medal in the process.
Katie also represented Team Great Britain at the 2022 World Games Sixes Tournament in Birmingham, AL.
The southern Maryland native grew up playing youth lacrosse in St. Mary’s County, but it wasn’t until high school that Katie would jump into the cage full-time.
After not making the cut as a midfielder on her high school team, she was given the option to play goalie and she jumped at the bit for a chance to play with her friends on the high school team.
Learning the position was tough for Katie as there weren’t as many readily available resources as there are today for lacrosse goalies. So, she relied heavily on watching any games that were available to her on YouTube to help teach her how to play goalie.
She drew inspiration from Hopkins legend Jesse Schwartzman on how she played the position and was even able to get out and watch him play a few games as a Blue Jay when she was younger.
Greenwood would eventually translate that hard work into success in the college ranks. She first started playing at St. Mary’s College before taking a year off during her sophomore year so she could transfer to Florida Southern where she would be named a 2x NCAA DII All-American and Goalie of the Year.
Katie never had any intentions of playing for Team England growing up.
After college, she received some offers to try out for the pro women’s league and team USA but felt with many DII lacrosse players not really having a shot at playing for either squad that she could have a better contribution with coaching, so she began coaching at her old school, St. Mary’s College before moving to England.
In 2017 she was approached by a friend after running a camp with the idea of trying out for Team England and after some consideration, she chose to take a shot at it and was able to crack the squad.
At the Worlds, Katie was faced with some difficult challenges and she shares some amazing stories on the show about what she learned from her time with Team England and how that helped her grow as a person and a goalie
Katie is now focusing on the Sixes game and is hoping to land the role as the coach of the U20 England team heading to the U20 in 2024.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Katie where we discuss topics like what kind of arc should you play, how to overcome a fear of the ball, and advice for international goalies wanting to play college lacrosse.
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