Caroline Lovett is coming back home. The Penn Manor school board earlier this week approved Lovett, a 2011 alum, as the Comets new girls lacrosse head coach. This comes on the heels of Lovett being hired as a fourth grade teacher for the coming school year at Penn Manors Pequea Elementary. She returns to the area after spending the last two years as a fourth grade teacher in Caroline County, Maryland.

I knew I wanted to come back to Lancaster, Lovett said. Then a teaching position opened up. I got the job. I knew I wanted to coach at Penn Manor if Jenn Forney needed any help.

Forney resigned as the Penn Manor girls lacrosse coach in May after four years at the helm.

I saw she (Forney) had resigned, Lovett said. Im like Well, its a lot but Ill go for it.

A standout hoopster and laxer at Penn Manor, Lovett played lacrosse for four years at NCAA Division III Washington (Md.) College. She was a full-time starter and one of the leading attacks in her final two years with the Shorewomen in 2014 and 2015, finishing her collegiate career with 67 goals and 44 assists in 48 games played.

So I did camps and clinics when I was at Washington and fell in love with it (coaching), Lovett said. And after I graduated from there I was missing the sport and wanted to get back involved.

Lovett did just that the last two years with a club lacrosse program along the eastern shore in the lacrosse hotbed of Maryland, coaching seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.

The girls, she said. Live and breath lacrosse down there.

Lovett is aiming to instill a similar passion back at her alma mater in hopes to return the Comets to the glory days she experienced not too long ago when Penn Manor went a combined 75-16 in her four years there from 2008 through 2011, the last three of those seasons reaching the District 3 semifinals, including a runner-up finish in 2009. Penn Manor went a combined 32-37 the last four seasons, including a 4-13 mark in 2017.

I think its all gonna start with having a coach who is dedicated to the sport and holds the girls accountable, Lovett said. Instead of jumping into strategy and things we work on in practice its important to build a relationships with the girls and make them understand they need to be dedicated to the sport...once we have that established in the fall I hope to incorporate the skills and practices I learned to get the team back on the right track. But I know its a journey. Im not expecting us to win every game right away.

Lovett also admittedly understands coaching club lacrosse and a high school program are two different animals. After all, 20 of the 25 L-L boys and girls lacrosse programs have changed head coaches at least once since 2016. And Lovett will be one of eight new head coaches on the L-L lacrosse landscape in 2018.

I thought about it a lot actually, she said. Because of my experience playing in high school I know there a lot of politics that goes into high school sports...thats one reservation I had is its gonna be different from where Im coaching club with how involved the parents get...I think being a teacher will help me in that regard. Thats why I didnt let that aspect weigh too heavily on my decision because Im dealing with parents everyday in a professional manner as a teacher.

It is kinda crazy being 24. I do feel like Im kinda young. I dont know this many people this young who go into coaching shortly after graduating (college). I think itll be an adventure.

By the way, Lovett is the older sister to brother Cameron Lovett, who just graduated from Penn Manor and is soon headed to play basketball at NCAA D-III Union (NY) College.

Other searches: Searches for new head lacrosse coaches are still ongoing at Cocalico (boys), Garden Spot (boys), Hempfield (boys) and Lampeter-Strasburg (boys and girls).

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Penn Manor alum Caroline Lovett returning home as Comets' new girls lacrosse coach - LancasterOnline