Cradling The Father-Daughter Connection Of Lacrosse With Abbie McHerron

Abbie McHerron grew up with a lacrosse stick in her hand. Even as a baby, she was in the cradle of a lacrosse stick, and she has the pictures to prove it. Growing up the daughter of a former lacrosse player and women's lacrosse head coach is all that she has ever known.

Jake McHerron was a standout goalkeeper at the University of Arizona, where he was named a Western Conference Lacrosse League All-Star in 1990, 1992, and 1993. He also was a 1993 USILA All-Star in 1993 and led the country in save percentage in 1993 and 1994. He became the women's lacrosse head coach at Regis University in Denver, Colo., when Abbie was born and spent the first two years of her life in Colorado.  They moved onto the Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., where he spent six seasons as the Saints women's lacrosse head coach. He is now a high school coach at Cohoes High School, where Abbie graduated before coming to Goucher.

Lacrosse has always been in Abbie's DNA, but it was on her terms.

"I think there was always a small push," said Abbie. "In the end, he would have been happy regardless of what I did. He wanted my brother and I to carve our path and be our players and love the sport ourselves."

Abbie decided to follow in her father's footsteps in between the pipes. That could bring added pressure of being the daughter of a successful goalkeeper, but Abbie embraced the challenge.

"I don't think I ever felt the pressure of needing to be better because he was a goalkeeper," said Abbie. "I think that I always wanted to make him proud regardless because I knew that he was so good that I wanted to live up to what he was as a player." 

Her father aided Abbie's college decision, thanks to one of his connections. One of his former lacrosse players is Lucia Perfetti Clark, who served as Goucher's Title IX Coordinator from July 2014 to February 2020. The McHerrons and Clark connected at an Under Armour lacrosse tournament that brought Goucher to Abbie's attention. Abbie also had one request for her college, and that was to have old stone buildings, and luckily Goucher campus has plenty of those buildings. 

"I had grown up coming down to Maryland for different lacrosse events," said Abbie. "We went to Goucher, and I liked it and felt like a home away from home."

Abbie started all 21 games she has appeared and registered 150 saves, a 13.48 goals-against average in 969.59 minutes played. The team was 12-9 in the games she played in her two seasons. She was off to a great start in 2020 with an 8.58 goals-against average and was named the Landmark Conference Defensive Athlete of the Week before the new normal ended her season.

Abbie graduates in December of 2021, so there is a possibility that she has donned the Blue and Gold for the final time. When asked about her favorite athletic moment, she pointed to one of her final games last season against Neumann, a game she had eight saves in a 15-5 win. It wasn't her performance that stood out from that game, but the team effort.

"I felt like we all clicked, and it was a high energy," said Abbie. "I felt like it was how lacrosse should be played."

She might have played her last game at Notre Dame on March 10, 2020, a match where she had a strong second half to help the Gophers rally for a 10-9 win against its crosstown opponent. Due to some injuries that she has faced, she is ready for the next chapter in her journey. Abbie plans to start an online graduate program after she earns her degree from Goucher.

"After being injured my first year, I haven't been able to do things exactly the way that I would have liked to do, which is frustrating for me but understand that everything happens for a reason," said Abbie. "I realized that I wanted to be a teacher no matter what, and not being in the chronic pain I have been in the last few seasons has been important to me. Unfortunately, it's sad that I might be done playing lacrosse."

Abbie has always had a connection to lacrosse through her father. In her collegiate career, he has not made every game due to coaching high school lacrosse. If he is not there, he is watching the streams online and gives her pointers on improving her game.

"After every game, I get notes on what I could do better, what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it," said Abbie. "I get screenshots, I get to go back to film and watch this moment on what you need to fix to get better. It doesn't matter whether you win or lose there are always ways to improve. He wanted to make sure that I understood that I could always be better. He was always proud of me, win or lose, and happy for me."

The end of her collegiate career might be over, but lacrosse is in her blood. Along with those pictures in lacrosse sticks, she was known as a backpack kid on Regis because she was always on her father's back.

She remembers when her father was the head women's lacrosse coach at Siena. She said she was on campus any chance she could, whether it was swim lessons, in the athletic office, practices, cheering the Saints on the field, or in the stands. Growing up in lacrosse is something that she embraces.

"I loved the atmosphere that I grew up in my whole life, so it's something that I couldn't imagine growing up without," said Abbie. "I learned how to be resilient and roll with the punches. I have learned to see things through a whole different light because I have been privy to a whole lot of knowledge, and I see things the way a coach sees things."

There is a struggle to be the daughter of a former goalkeeper and a coach, but she also knows that she has benefits that others do not enjoy.

"It has always been a hard struggle being his daughter because it's hard when you grow up when a parent is never really home because lacrosse is their life," said Abbie. "I was very thankful for all the knowledge that he has. He put me in all the right positions. If it was something that I wanted, he made sure that I found a way to make it happen."

Abbie hopes to remain close to lacrosse when she completes her studies. She wants to be a lacrosse coach, whether at a camp, high school, or college. She does not think she can live without the sport.

She might not be at Goucher and the goalkeeper she has become without his guidance.

"We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but it's hard to be a coach's kid," said Abbie. "It's a hard thing for both of us, but it's worth it. I am so beyond thankful for it."