Zoe Starkey gives lacrosse a try at St. Ambrose University

Zoey Starkey grew up around sports in Princeton.

Whether she was playing volleyball or softball, or her brother, Jimmy, was playing basketball, baseball or football, there was always some of kind of sporting activity on mom’s family calendar at home.

So what did she do as a junior at St. Ambrose University? She picked up a new sport, lacrosse, which she absolutely knew nothing about, invited by some friends that were on the women’s team.

“I wasn’t doing musical theatre so I didn’t really have much on my plate so they said, ‘Come try it out. Come to a practice. We could use the numbers,’” she said. “It was great. All the girls were so welcoming. It didn’t even matter that I wasn’t good.”

She quickly learned it was not an easy sport to pick up.

“Definitely a very different sport. It’s not easy,” she said. “I had never played a field sport. Like I played soccer when I was 5. I had never really played a full, contact field sport, so it was definitely a change from what I was used to and learning how to catch and pass with a stick isn’t the easiest either.

“It was difficult to pick the ball handling and stick skills. Not necessarily the field work. I was on defenses that wasn’t that difficult to learn. I’d say the most difficult was the stick skills that are needed.”

Now a senior, Starkey said she was kind of shocked how physical lacrosse is.

“There’s different rules for girls and guys,” she said. “Guys is a lot more physical. They’re allowed to push each other and whack each other with sticks and with girls you’re not allowed to do that. You can put the stick on the body, but you can’t push them or hit them or anything.”

Starkey said the lacrosse field, which 110 yards in length and 60 yards in width, is slightly smaller than football field.

Lacrosse players wear goggles to protect their eyes and bridge of their nose. Other than that, they take the blunt of any contact with players or the ball.

Starkey’s mom, Rachel, was a bit stunned at first when Zoe told her she was going to play lacrosse.

“I was taken aback like, ‘Isn’t there a musical or play you can be in?’” she said. Then I thought, she really needs to do this. This is a once in a lifetime offer to try something different and learn something new and needs to meet and go for every opportunity she’s interested in because life’s too short to wonder ‘what if’ and ‘if I had only tried.’"

Mom is now “a total lacrosse fan.”

St. Ambrose is a member of the Heart of America Conference, including schools in Missouri, Kansas and Michigan. The Bees finished with a 7-7 record this season.

Starkey said it’s been a very fun experience.

“I am so grateful. I have so many good experiences and all the girls are my friends,” she said.

Coincidently, Starkey’s brother, Jimmy, is a freshmen member of the St. Ambrose JV basketball team. She said it’s been great to have Jimmy on campus and she enjoys going to his games.

Starkey, who is a Pyschology major, will be graduating May 17. She wants to try to get an entry level job in the Illinois Valley before she goes to grad school to get some experience.

In the meantime, she said maybe this summer she’ll introduce lacrosse to her brother and “try to get him to pass and catch with him to get him to see how hard it is.”

Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com