In the program’s sixth season, and their coach’s first, the 2025 Eagles girls lacrosse team made history by securing the school’s first girls lacrosse state championship by defeating University School of Nashville 21-8 in the title game in Chattanooga on May 16.

The new coach created a culture of consistency, competitiveness and confidence, culminating in a championship, transforming a team whose record improved from 6-7 to 15-3 in just one year.

Coach MeriTaylor Pickle was hired as the Eagles girls lacrosse coach in December 2024. Coach Pickle came to ECS with an impressive lacrosse resume that began as a high school player at St. Agnes Academy. More recently, she led the middle school lacrosse program at Hutchison from 2019-2024 while also helping to lead the Sting to three consecutive city championships. Coach Pickle has also led summer lacrosse camps and has coached club lacrosse.

To fully appreciate the impact of this monumental feat, we must go back a few years when the girls lacrosse program began, thanks to the vision, encouragement and campaigning by an ECS mom. Taking note of the increased popularity of the sport, current ECS photographer Tracey Simpson lobbied for a girls lacrosse program inspired by her son’s involvement on the boys lacrosse team at ECS. When her daughter, who was in middle school at the time, expressed interest in playing, Mrs. Simpson scheduled a meeting with our then athletics director in late fall of 2017. With his approval, ECS formed a middle school girls team that initial season with the goal of teaching the sport to new players. The following year, in 2019, ECS rostered its first varsity team, and with that, ECS girls lacrosse was born! 

Fast forward to this school year when Coach Pickle assumed her role as the new girls lacrosse coach. While much about the ECS girls lacrosse program was initially unknown by Coach Pickle, there was some familiarity. She knew junior Kate Spiegelman as a star player from the fifth grade. Senior Sarah Grace Clinton caught her eye next. “They were two peas in a pod. Their stick skills were phenomenal.” Coach Pickle selected both Sarah Grace and Kate to serve as co-captains of the team.

With a young team led by just two seniors and three juniors, the seven sophomores and nine freshmen would be required to contribute immediately. In order for that to happen, Coach Pickle recognized she needed to help her team improve their stick skills and increase their lacrosse IQ, all while infusing a healthy dose of confidence in her young players.

---

Despite the new program’s challenges in recent seasons, Coach Pickle saw untapped potential in this team. A big part of that was that the girls were eager to learn and receptive to her teaching to develop their skills. “They had the athletic talent but just had to get the skills developed. I told them we are going to be one of the last two teams standing for a championship.”

---

The new Eagles coach also expressed her confidence in this young team by setting high expectations backed up with consistency in practice. “I am a big believer in repetition with practice including 20 minutes spent on stick skills so they could confidently go into a game and catch this ball and make that shot. It builds all-around self-esteem when you become more confident in yourself and your teammates.”

As players mastered their stick skills, Coach Pickle then focused on addressing their understanding of how the game should work. “They used to get the ball off the draw and have tunnel vision to the goal. They were wearing themselves out by sprinting to the goal. After much repetition, they were able to move the ball from one end of the field to the goal in 12 seconds, which is way faster than running down the field. They were willing to put in the work to learn that and progressed quickly.”

Team co-captain and senior Sarah Grace Clinton said her goal was always to win a state championship, but based on previous seasons, she thought it better to have controllable goals – namely, for everyone to give 100% effort every day. She explained, “As the season went on and I got to play with the girls and see how we performed against better competition, I started to get more hopeful. Once we started spending more time together and getting closer as a team, I knew that it was a special group. There were definitely moments when we were playing that I would glance up at the scoreboard and be like Wow, we’re actually doing this, and we’re scoring a lot.”

And scoring a lot is what they did, as a team and as individuals. Sarah Grace scored her 100^th career goal in the game versus St. Benedict, then fellow co-captain Kate followed shortly thereafter with her 100^th career goal versus St. Cecilia in Nashville. It was clear the Eagles were on a mission.

The team kept proving themselves by winning big, only closely losing two games to highly regarded teams. “When we lost to an established championship program like Hutchison by only 4 points, that is when I knew this team would be hard to beat,” said the former Sting coach.

Junior and co-captain Kate Spiegelman added, “I don’t think I ever saw our team fight as hard as we did at Hutchison and Collierville. Collierville chose us as their senior night, so that did not sit well with any of us. We went out to make a statement and won 16-7.”

Winning a decisive victory against a formidable team at the end of April gave the team a boost of confidence and needed momentum that carried them through to the postseason.

---

Coach Pickle credited the team captains for helping to create the team chemistry needed to be competitive. “Their impact was huge. I set the drills, and the captains are there to keep the girls focused. I run all of my ideas through them before I speak to the team. They have their own pump-up speech before the games. The girls fully respect them. I have to have them.”

---

Kate remarked that this team’s chemistry was special. “I didn’t know how close a team can be. Each player cares for each other on the field and off the field. Everyone hangs out and is there for each other.”

“It’s important to have confidence,” Kate added. “I used to think if I’m confident then I’m cocky. But I realized I have to believe that I can do it. Coach Pickle did a great job of making us feel confident while keeping us humble. Without the confidence, we could not have won.”

---

“Our slogan is ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,’” Coach Pickle said, which is recited by the team when warming up for games. I challenged our team to focus on what they’re doing at all times and leave nothing in the tank. I reminded them that they are setting the bar for generations to come because they are writing the program’s history. This affects every game they play. I told them, ‘You have done so much more than any other girls lacrosse team at ECS.’”

---

Because of the team’s outstanding record during the regular season, the Eagles secured the one-seed in the state tournament and locked up the Eagles girls lacrosse first Region Championship. The Eagles hosted Webb School of Knoxville in the quarterfinals, sailing past the Spartans, 18-4, then hosting Christian Academy of Knoxville for the semifinals on graduation afternoon, defeating the Warriors 23-7, punching their ticket to the state championship game in Chattanooga.

While this was the Eagles’ first appearance in the girls lacrosse state championship game, several of these players had seen championship action before. Many of the lacrosse players also play soccer, which just won back-to-back state championships in 2023 and 2024.

Senior and team co-captain Sarah Grace helped lead her team to those state titles and was in a good position to secure her third. “I think playing in two state championships before this helped me mentally prepare for what it was going to look and feel like, which took away the anxious, nervousness of not knowing what to expect going in.” She recalled, “The feeling you get when the clock is ticking down and you realize that you just became a state champion is indescribable. Getting to experience that twice with soccer motivated me to want to have that again with this lacrosse team and let me know that it is possible.”

When championship game day arrived, the team’s confidence and competitiveness were apparent during pregame. Coach Pickle said, “I told our players, ‘Don’t look at other team before the game. They are looking at us. The game plan is not going to change from warmups. Mental strength is something we are training for.”

Sarah Grace shared a little of her locker room speech to the team before the title game. “Most people at this moment would give an inspirational speech or try to amp up the team, but I felt I was called to something a little different. I remember getting up and reminding the girls of the gift of health that we’ve been given and that we had a chance to go out and use that to the glory of the Lord and not for ourselves. The fact that we were able to get up that day, have air in our lungs, a body that functions and had the strength to run and play was nothing short of the grace of God, and we all needed to remember that before going out there. I also told the girls I loved them and was proud of them no matter the outcome, but the work we had put in all season prepared us for this moment, and we were ready to go out and win.”

The championship game progressed as the Eagles expected as the team enacted their game plan on USN. The Eagles took control early, steadily added to their goals, and played well on defense. Freshman Casey Vargo scored an impressive eight goals during the game, followed by Kate and Sarah Grace who each scored five and four goals, respectively. The Tigers could not keep up as the Eagles amassed 21 goals to their eight.

As the clock ticked down to the buzzer, the Eagles girls lacrosse team completed their mission by earning their first state title in the sport, putting an exclamation mark on their season and marking a milestone in ECS athletics history. Celebrations commenced, tears flowed, and smiles were abundant as photos were snapped for Instagram and memory books. In postgame announcements, Coach Pickle was deservedly named the recipient of the TSSAA Division IIA Girls Lacrosse Coach’s Award.

Mrs. Simpson was at the championship game on a photography assignment continuing to document the ECS girls lacrosse program with her camera as she has so faithfully done since its inception in 2019. While she snapped away, if you looked closely behind the lens, you would have seen tears in her eyes as she remembered how far this program has come since she first met with the AD just a few short years ago. “It was surreal. I still get emotional thinking about it. It is mind-blowing to look at the early photos from just a few years back. I am thankful to have been there to witness the progression and to watch the girls get that trophy this year. I could not be prouder of this team, and I will always have a soft spot for ECS girls lacrosse.”

---

Sarah Grace credits much of their team’s success to her coach. “Coach Pickle’s impact has been so great. She showed me how to believe in myself and what I was capable of as a player. All of the girls and I quickly grew to love Coach Pickle, so whatever she had to say we were quick to listen, and whatever she asked of us, we willingly did because we wanted to do our best for her. She quickly came in and set the tone that we were going to work hard and be a committed group. She held us to a high standard, pushed us to be better versions of ourselves, and demanded more than most coaches do because she knew we were capable of living up to those demands. The reason this worked was because she knows lacrosse so well and was able to technically, strategically and physically prepare us for what we were going to face in the season to come. Our hard work wasn’t wasted because she knew how to direct it into what actually mattered. At the same time, she made us all feel like we mattered, and she was able to make our team feel like a family.”

---

Coach Pickle agrees that “family” may be a perfect word. “This is more than a team. We communicate every single day. The saddest part after we won the championship was now lacrosse is over. We were used to being with each other.” She added of her time at ECS, “I love it. The staff has been amazing, and the parents have been phenomenal. I have enjoyed every single day being here and am excited about next season already.”

Sarah Grace reflected on the season that surpassed all expectations: “Coach Pickle was able to create a culture of confidence, competitiveness and consistency. Those themes are what sum up our team this year. Throughout the season, we had consistent structure with our practices, game day lunches, pregame warmups and everything in between. She coached confidence into our team, which allowed us to go out each game knowing we had the capacity to beat the team we were up against. This all culminated in a championship because consistency let us grow our skills all season, confidence let us go into games with our heads up, and competitiveness gave us the drive to execute on the first two.”

Kate added, “Coach Pickle has definitely made a difference and a lasting impact on lacrosse here. I never knew how rewarding it could be when you love each other well and work hard. I have never been so excited to have one more year.”

“We have set the standard,” Coach Pickle reflected on an amazing, history-making season. “We have set the bar, and we want to keep getting better every year.”

Note in Closing from the ECS Girls Lacrosse Coach and Team: While we have celebrated the success of the season and winning the state championship, we also wish to celebrate and honor the life of Sky Redick, our dear friend and teammate. Her earthly presence will be missed on and off the field, but the spirit of love, kindness, boldness, determination and joy that she showed us every day will live on in our team. We commit to honoring her life by the way we play, treat one another and welcome others to our field. We love and miss Sky every day, yet we rejoice she has been made whole and now lives with our Heavenly Father!