Girls Lacrosse Team Raises Hopes at School
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Ballou High School in Washington might not seem the mostly likely school to have a lacrosse team.
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But [A]lacrosse[/A] has grown beyond the popular image of a sport mainly for [A]wealthy[/A] private schools. Ballou is a public school in one of the poorest [A]neighborhoods[/A] in the city. In the past six years, more than forty [A]students[/A] have died[A] violent deaths[/A]. Many were the result of drug [A]violence[/A].
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Ballou has just had its first year with a lacrosse team. The team is for girls. They lost every game. But their [A]coach[/A], Holly McGarvie, says this was also the first time they ever [A]played[/A].
HOLLY McGARVIE: "You know, I think the goal each year is going to change. This year, I think, just starting and building a [A]foundation[/A] that we can build from and [A]create[/A] a tradition of women's lacrosse here at Ballou."
Lacrosse is a fast-moving sport, the [A]modern version[/A] of a game played by American Indians. Teams try to make goals with a ball [A]caught[/A] and thrown using a net at the end of a stick.
School officials [A]decided[/A] to make changes at Ballou after less than sixty [A]percent[/A] of the senior class [A]graduated[/A] in two thousand six. Since then the graduation rate has [A]improved [/A]by ten to fifteen percent. Rahman Branch, the school [A]principal[/A], says one change was to [A]increase[/A] activities after the school day.
RAHMAN BRANCH: "We decided to take some more [A]approaches [/A]to add on to them being [A]comfortable [/A]being a kid, to now making sure they are a kid who knows what they want, what it takes to get there, and then has the [A]stamina[/A] to go through."
Mr. Branch says Holly McGarvie was a [A]perfect[/A] match for Ballou. She was on a national team and a star player at Princeton University. She was in her first year of teaching. She wanted to take the lessons she[A] learned[/A] from sports and use them in[A] teaching biology[/A].
Coach McGarvie says the first [A]practices[/A] for the new team were difficult. Some players got angry at one another. She helped them learn to keep their mind on the game.
HOLLY McGARVIE: "On our way home from our first game, from Wilson, and we are all talking about it, and the girls are [A]extremely[/A] excited. Despite the loss of, I think, maybe eleven to one, you know, they were already in the mindset of what can we do better?"
Tylashia Joyner says lacrosse has helped her think more about her future.
TYLASHIA JOYNER: "I will want to play in college because it will keep me in [A]shape[/A] and it will help me stay [A]focused[/A] and want to do [A]something[/A]. Because if you want to play a [A]sport[/A], you have to have your grades up."
