Savanna Giesler made a quick turnaround from participating as a Naperville Central player to the taking over as Head Coach of the girls lacrosse team. We profile the Redhawk in this feature, presented by Edward Medical Group.
If Naperville Central girls Lacrosse had to describe their 2021 season in one word it’s new. New players, a new practice facility, and a new head coach. After no season in 2020 because of the COIVD-19 Pandemic Savanna Giesler can finally blow that whistle for the first time.
“I tried out for it because there was no cut and my brother had actually played so I like the physicality of it and the competitiveness and just the speed of the game is really fun to watch and to coach”
Ever since picking up that first stick as a Freshman, Savanna Giesler never looked back and played all four years at Central, rising the ranks as one of the team’s top scorers as senior. She then continued playing at Carthage College for a year before returning to the Hawks nest as an assistant under previous head coach Kevin Kloss.
As a 2017 Naperville Central graduate, Savanna Giesler is one of the youngest head coaches in the state in any sport. In fact, if the 2020 season had not been canceled, Giesler would have been coaching former teammates who played varsity as freshman in 2017, while she was a senior. Despite leading a team at young age, the new coach feels that she and the program are a perfect fit.
“This is a sport that’s grown tremendously in the area the last 10 years or so and so I’m really excited to have been a part of that and been a product of that and to continue that into the next generations of lacrosse”
Her players are confident in what their new leader brings to the table, knowing full well that Coach Giesler knows exactly what it’s like to wear the red and white uniform.
“She’s very up to date know how the game works which is definitely very helpful I like how she, she definitely does reach out to her captains to you know get feedback from them so she definitely does work with our feedback and she corporates that into practice which is also very helpful and very useful.”
However, all was not lost this past year. Despite having no High School season in 2020 the players still got their chances to play together prior to 2021.
“I fortunately had a lot of them that have been able to play in club seasons in fall and summer and so I am really excited to see what chemistry those girls are able to bring to the team this year”
Naperville Central is one game into the season and it will be fun to see how far these new Redhawks can fly. Reporting for Naperville Sports Weekly I’m Patrick Codo.
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