SPIRE’s lacrosse program goes beyond the standard set by high-schools across the country. Head Coach of Lacrosse JD Harkey and Assistant Coach Nakeie Montgomery recently sat down and shared the details around the program, and their excitement to be a part of it.

SPIRE’s lacrosse team is set to launch its inaugural season during the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Head Coach Harkey and Assistant Coach Montgomery have been hard at work building the program over the last year. As these preparations are in progress, Harkey and Montgomery explained how SPIRE’s approach differs from more traditional high school programs.

Unlike a traditional school, SPIRE has the opportunity to be flexible in their day-to-day schedules. Every day student athletes will receive at least 5 hours of academic instruction as well as 5 hours of sports training, but not every day will look the same. Harkey and Montgomery intend to have an alternating schedule to avoid routine as much as possible. The rationale behind this idea is to keep their student athletes on their toes and engaged. However, there will still be enough structure for the students to fulfill their daily commitments.

Head Coach Harkey explained, “From a development training perspective, we don’t want our kids to get stuck in the mindset of, ‘Hey, it’s just another day’, we want them to be dynamic.”

SPIRE’s lacrosse program interweaves the following within the context of sports and education:

• Practice and drills
• Performance training
• Personal development
• Cultural awareness
• Mental skills training 
• Interpersonal relationships

The program will also be using an app to personally develop each student’s sports training and individually target the skills each athlete needs to work on. What’s expected depends on each athlete’s abilities. The app accounts for injuries, and can tell the athlete not to perform a particular training activity if doing so would aggravate a known injury.

Assistant Coach Nakeie Montgomery shared his excitement about the high-level lacrosse that’s going to be played in the coming seasons. Once the team is together, he looks forward to the conversations and opportunities happening both on and off of the field that will help the each team member grow to their full potential.

Harkey hopes to spend a lot of time with each student as well, treating growth beyond lacrosse with a high level of importance. He plans to use a book program where periodically each student has the opportunity to read a book from his own extensive collection. This will help them mentally prepare for games and other challenges throughout their lives. Coach Harkey explained, “There are self-help type books…different mindfulness books…it can be extremely valuable for personal development, and so I’ve tried to find these books that shed light or have very interesting stories that also engage conversation. So you can read a book, and have a solid discussion on ethics and hypotheticals.” This can open doors in terms of trust and communication, both of which are crucial when playing on a team.

The program is actively recruiting and Harkey told us how thrilling this process is. He expects the lacrosse program to grow, “by leaps and bounds” in the coming years. Additionally, he hopes the sports training they receive will prepare them to go to the next level and to play at the collegiate level or become professional lacrosse players. “I intend for our program to be representative of players that are going on to college. Not only to be a player on the roster, but compete with their teammates every day for playing time, for accolades, and for a shot at the professional ranks.”

Harkey’s favorite part of being the lacrosse Head Coach is the players themselves, “I love the growth from when I first meet them to when we’re hopefully in the playoffs, nine months later. I’m excited for everyone to watch, how much better they’ll be.”