Jasmine Waite (second from the left on the back row) at the Midlands Development Tournament in 2019.
England Lacrosse would like to welcome Jasmine Waite to the organisation as part of our Communications Team on a freelance basis.
Jasmine will initially take a lead on content planning and creation on the England Lacrosse University Lacrosse Officer (ULO) Programme to help promote the work we do and engage further with the university sector.
Jasmine first picked up a lacrosse stick while studying at university in late 2017 and she immediately fell in love with the pace and skill of the game.
“Lacrosse is great both physically and mentally; you’re constantly predicting and reacting to the movements of your teammates which is nice as it keeps your mind alert. I also found the equality and camaraderie between the men’s and women’s teams at university really refreshing as well.”
From starting off as a player, Jasmine slowly transitioned into coaching and helped out with her university’s Engage and Just Play programmes where she co-ordinated development matches and promoted student participation in the sport at a entry/beginner level.
Then, in her final year as an undergraduate student, Jasmine became her university’s ULO which gave her the opportunity to learn more about lacrosse in the community and at a grassroots level.
“My university club was quite high-performance focused, so I was eager to support the grassroots recruitment of new players to develop and diversify the club before I graduated, and the ULO Programme was super helpful in facilitating that.
“For me, it was a nice alternative to taking on a more active committee role, as it allowed me to get involved in a wider lacrosse community, bigger than just my immediate team/club; I felt I was making more of an impact that way. Liaising with England Lacrosse directly and building connections with other ULOs was also really valuable and a good opportunity to develop some useful transferable skills before I graduated.”
After her initial graduation coincided with the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Jasmine made the decision to continue her studies where she developed a keen interest in communications and spent the first half of this year on a social media internship with a political monitoring firm, before starting as a freelancer with England Lacrosse in September.
Jasmine feels this new role with England Lacrosse is the ideal way to bring together her interests in a professional environment while also helping grow the game at a university level.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to combine my love of sport and writing, with a role in comms and content creation, while drawing on my own three-years of experience as a ULO.
“I’m looking forward to utilising that first-hand insight into the role to help evolve and expand the programme, but I’m mainly excited about capturing some fascinating stories for the website and not only helping to grow the profile of university lacrosse, but also highlighting its involvement in some important social campaigns too!”
Jasmine will always be on the look out for interesting stories that promote our sport within the university sector and is able to assist clubs/teams with upcoming events. She can be contacted at j.waite@englandlacrosse.co.uk.
We hope you will join us in welcoming Jasmine to the organisation!