School: Souderton
Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Scoring the game-winning goal sophomore year vs. North Penn”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “When someone was walking off the bus at an away game asked if anyone saw ‘The Office’ (talking about the TV show), and Sarah responded by saying, ‘Oh yeah, I think I saw one back there!’ and pointed to a building.”
Music on iPod: Dave Matthews Band, Kenny Chesney, Miley Cyrus, Jack Johnson, Rascal Flatts, Jason Mraz, Bruce Springsteen
Future plans: “Come back to the area and teach special education and coach lacrosse.”
Words to live by: “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to France
One thing people don’t know about me: “I am terrified of birds and mustard!”
Lindsay Walbrandt has a passion for teaching. And coaching.
Don’t be surprised if somewhere down the road the Souderton senior resurfaces at her alma mater - teaching special education and coaching lacrosse.
”I love teaching, I love coaching,” Walbrandt said. “That’s really where my heart is.
“I think teaching and coaching is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have just to see someone else develop a love for a sport the way you did and see them grow as an athlete.”
Although Walbrandt is still in high school, her resume already boasts some serious coaching experience. For two years, she served as coach of a third and fourth grade team in the Souderton Area Girls’ Lacrosse Association (SAGLA). This year she is coaching a fifth and sixth grade team, which includes her younger sister Holly. Her sister Megan also plays.
It’s not the winning that matters most to Walbrandt – although she loves to compete, it’s the opportunity to share her passion for a sport she loves.
“You work at something every day at practice – every day, every day, and slowly you see one girl doing it,” the Souderton senior said. “What I think is awesome is when one girl gets it, and she translates it to the other players.
“You’re saying it as a coach, and she’s reinforcing it out on the field.”
It was not unusual for Walbrandt to leave a practice with her high school team and head off directly to her SAGLA team’s practice.
“She’s just an integral part of our community program, which is awesome,” Souderton coach Nicole Bauer said. “A lot of the girls really look up to her.”
That much was obvious at the Indians’ recent Community Night game. Every time Walbrandt touched the ball, there was an enthusiastic response from her young fans in the stands.
“She’s definitely a good role model for the younger kids,” Bauer said. “She’s just an all-around great kid.”
Walbrandt served early notice that she was the real deal on the lacrosse field when she was pulled up to the varsity as a freshman. The season, however, was a difficult one as the Indians won just six games, and Walbrandt has never forgotten that year’s 22-2 loss to North Penn.
“I think I was taught a lot of lessons coming into a bad situation,” Walbrandt said. “I learned a lot about team dynamics and how everyone getting along as a team is so important for the success of the team.”
One year later, Kim Dudek – assisted by her daughter Nicole Bauer – took over the helm, and a year later, Bauer was named head coach. For Walbrandt, it has been one of those ‘happily ever after…’ endings to her high school lacrosse career.
“Nicole came when I was a sophomore, and it was just a complete 180-degree turn in both the team aspect and the lacrosse aspect, and so much of it is thanks to her,” Walbrandt said. “Everyone got along, and we still continue to get along.
“We had a lot of success that year.”
Ask Walbrandt her favorite sports memory, and she points to scoring the game-winner in the Indians’ 15-13 win over North Penn one short year after losing by 20.
As the captain of this year’s squad, Walbrandt sets the bar high for her teammates.
“She is always the first person at practice, and she wants as many offseason practices as possible just to get the team to where it’s supposed to be at the beginning of the season,” Bauer said. “She wants everyone to have the love for lacrosse that she has.
“There aren’t many captains that lead both verbally and by example, but she definitely does both. She’ll tell you when she sees you’re doing something wrong, and she’ll tell you how to do it correctly the next time.”
For the past two summers, Walbrandt competed with the Ultimate Goal Lacrosse Club Team, directed by Michele DeJuliis, a member of the U.S. Elite Team who was recently named assistant coach at Princeton University.
“That was really an awesome experience just to be able to go above and beyond and to be able to play with people who are at the same ability level – it opens the door to learning a lot of new things and doing more high level things on the field,” Walbrandt said.
Although the senior captain has elevated her skills as the result of her offseason efforts, one thing has remained constant.
“Her stick skills have improved drastically, but she’s always been a competitor, always been someone that works 100 percent all the time,” Bauer said. “She’s been through the bad times and the good times, and I think having that experience and coming from a 20-goal loss they had her freshman year, she knows what it takes to be successful.”
Walbrandt plays attack wing or defense wing for the Indians.
“She’s a very versatile player because she can play low attack, and she can play low defense,” Bauer said. “She can play whatever position you want. She has a lot of stamina and endurance, so we try to keep her in the midfield.”
What does Walbrandt do well on the lacrosse field?
“Everything,” Bauer said. “She sees the ground balls, she can pass nicely, and she can catch whatever is thrown to her.”
Walbrandt comes by her love of lacrosse honestly. Her mother, Allison (Hughes) Walbrandt excelled in both high school and college and took her to watch high school games. As a youngster, she attended clinics at the high school under then lacrosse coach Deb Eschbach.
If there was any doubt that Lindsay would develop a passion for lacrosse, that doubt was put to rest in when her mother was one of the creators of SAGLA, Souderton’s community lacrosse association that began operations in 2002.
“My mother is great,” Walbrandt said. “She’s the one that got me to all the practices, she’s been with me at every single tournament. She’s always the one there at the end of the game to give me input or for me to vent to about things.
“She’s always there for me and always will be, and I love her to death. She’s made the recruiting process and my whole lacrosse experience so much easier.”
For a while, Walbrandt split her time between lacrosse and field hockey – the only sports she played competitively except for a brief stint with the community basketball program.
“I am the one kid in America who has never played soccer,” Walbrandt said with a laugh. “I cannot kick a soccer ball to this day, so it was always field hockey and lacrosse for me.
“It was always a close call between hockey and lacrosse. I love lacrosse because of the high speed of it – how it flows.”
By the time she was in high school, Walbrandt had dedicated herself to lacrosse, and she gave up playing field hockey after her sophomore year.
“Lacrosse was where my heart was, and I realized that,” Walbrandt said. “I knew it was what I wanted to play in college.”
The college recruiting process began – not coincidentally – around the time she began playing for the elite Ultimate Goal Lacrosse Club.
“The recruiting process is exciting, it’s frustrating, it’s nerveracking,” Walbrandt said. “It was hard, but it was fun too.”
Wilbrandt will be taking her lacrosse talents to Lock Haven University, a Division 2 national powerhouse.
It’s a happy ending that was unexpected, to say the least, for a student-athlete who had narrowed her college choices down to just Drexel and West Chester.
“Originally, I gave no consideration whatsoever to Lock Haven whatsoever because my cousins – Courtney and Casey Hughes – went there,” Walbrandt said. “I didn’t want it to be, ‘Oh, you’re going there because your cousin goes there.’
“They contacted me and saw me at a combine.”
An official visit confirmed that Lock Haven was the place for her.
“I went up and visited and fell in love with it,” Walbrandt said. “I didn’t want to be living in my cousins’ shadows, but they play completely different sports, so I don’t think it will be like that at all and now realize that was kind of stupid of me to think it would be like that.
“I fell in love with coach (Kristen) Selvege. She’s so awesome, and all the players up there are so much fun and just their style of play. I knew I wanted to play at a place where I could be an impact player and actually play. I could have gone to a D-1 school where I probably wouldn’t have played until my senior year. I wanted to play at a school that was competitive.”
Walbrandt will major in special education, and if she has her way, she’ll be back in town in four years sharing her passion for lacrosse while teaching and coaching at her alma mater.
