Today marks National Lacrosse Day 2020 and to celebrate we are valuing our dedicated lacrosse volunteers from all over the country who have kept their respective clubs and teams going through what has been a strange and stressful year.
Here, we recognise Brooklands Lacrosse Club’s junior, senior, and membership secretary and current England U19 men’s team manager, Alison Cara, who has been dealing with all coronavirus related things since the UK went into lockdown.
Despite never having played lacrosse herself, the 57 year old has been involved in the game since her son started playing around 20 years ago.
She says she’s had a lot of work to do since the prevalence of COVID-19 but that it has been an important part of getting her teams ready for the return to play.
“I am the COVID officer for Brooklands and also the England U19 men’s team; this has involved ensuring that I have the appropriate risk assessments in place which are kept updated for each Phase of the return to play pathway.
“I keep up to date with all the current guidance and monitor/make changes as necessary. I issue the guidelines for the club to all players and members to keep them up to date with the changes put in place.
“Communication is vital for all parties”.
Alison’s COVID officer role also extends to looking after the data collected from track and trace as well as ensuring the club has the necessary PPE.
During lockdown, despite the obvious difficulties, Alison says both Brooklands and the England U19 men’s team were kept busy.
“At Brooklands, we ran sessions for the juniors when allowed as we thought it was key to help them through the difficult time.
“For England, we held online meetings with the players in large and small groups, held one to ones and communicated with the players via vlogs.
“The contact was imperative for us to monitor how they were coping with the lockdown and to maintain contact.
“We have now run two training sessions in bubbles of 30 which the players have thoroughly enjoyed. I ensure we take the necessary measures to enable us to train – track and trace data, temperatures taken, supply PPE etc”.
In normal times, Alison is often seen managing various teams at Brooklands as well as running their school coaching programme. In fact, we’re not sure how Alison fits it all in!
“I also assist with the junior coaching programme at the club. I attend the sports club playing committee meetings and until a couple of weeks ago I was on the Brooklands sports club board.
“I attend the JNGLA meetings and also the JSN meetings. I have been Chair of JSN for the last 6 years and have also been fixtures secretary on and off for a number of years and will be taking on this role again this year.
“In my role as JSN Chair I sit on the NWLA committee. I am the U19 league and competition organizer for the NW. I sit on the NEMLA committee to assist with the running of the men’s game in the North.
As you can imagine, Alison hasn’t really had much time to do anything else these days after dealing with lacrosse and coronavirus related stuff but says she does enjoy a bit of gardening and watching TV!
But ultimately sport, and lacrosse in particular, is her life and she believes it has many positive aspects, especially given the current circumstances.
“I think that maintaining contact with the players and club members is imperative. It gives you the opportunity to see how everyone is coping with the lockdown and opens up the avenues for communication if they need to talk. Everyone is dealing with the pandemic in different ways and I will do anything I can do to help.
“Giving players the opportunity to train, even if it’s only for a short period, helps maintain a little normality in these uncertain times”.
We’d like to thank Alison for her hard-work and dedication to lacrosse, especially during this year, and we hope she continues as one of our amazing volunteers for many years to come!