Speedy Alex Foreman, an Eastside Catholic Graduate, is Making Leap to Next Level in Lacrosse

For many high school graduates waiting to start college, the summer before heading off to school is a time to relax, spend time with friends and anxiously await the next chapter of life.

Alex Foreman is not your typical high school graduate.

The 2011  graduate and future USC Trojan has not had much time to relax since ending high school. Seemingly from the minute she , Foreman has been traveling across the country, doing the thing she loves most: Playing lacrosse.

Foreman spent most of July on the East Coast coaching X-Team, her former club squad, while practicing with the group of rising juniors. Once she was back, she jumped right into coaching a lacrosse camp on Mercer Island with her USC coaches. Sammamish Patch caught up with Foreman there and has her thoughts on her love of lacrosse, her decision to attend USC, and her excitement about the rise of the sport on the West Coast.

Playing with the Boys

Foreman did not start playing lacrosse until fifth grade. Before that, she had been a softball pitcher, but quickly tired of the slow pace of the games. Lacking the skills, in her words, to play soccer, she decided to start looking for something else.

"I played T-ball and softball forever and I was a pitcher and I just kind of got sick of standing around for three hours in the rain," Foreman said. "I was never very good at soccer and one of my friends was playing lacrosse on the East Coast and [suggested I try it]."

There was only one problem: There were no girls lacrosse teams in the area. So she teamed up with her brother and began playing with the boys. Girls often have played with boys in other sports at that age, but girls lacrosse and boys lacrosse are essentially two different sports. The boys game is a full-contact sport, while the girls game focuses much more on stick control and finesse.

But Foreman's decision to play despite not having a viable girls lacrosse option has benefitted her in her development. When she began playing against other girls in middle school, her skill set was more advanced.

"I just kind of understood that it was a mix between basketball and soccer, kind of, and I picked up on it a lot faster," Foreman said. "Then, when I started playing girls, I was just that much further ahead of everyone."

Foreman's advanced experience made her a quick hit on the lacrosse field. After playing with the Issaquah Middle School team, she was introduced to the national X-Team by her middle school coach. X-team put Foreman on the field with talented players from across the country in tournaments against a wide range of competition. Combined with her experience of playing with the boys, Foreman made a discovery early in her high school career: She was good.

"Freshman year, I realized that any team we were playing I could get past any defender, and I felt good about it," Foreman said. "I knew if I worked really hard, I knew I could get going."

Foreman got going fast. By her junior year, she was anchoring a state champion team at Eastside Catholic. Her senior year, the college offers started rolling in.

USC Pride

Foreman had a pretty good idea of what she wanted in a college. She was intent on staying on the West Coast and playing for a school with a rich tradition. UC-Davis, Cal Berkeley and Fresno State were all on her radar, but her eventual choice was love at first visit.

"I really knew that I wanted to stay on the West Coast," Foreman said. "I wanted a big school, California, lots of school pride, so when I found out about USC, it was just perfect."

Foreman was swayed by a tour of the school she had in January. Touring the Coliseum and visiting the football locker room let her know she was in the right place. But more important than the tour was the relationship she struck up with her tour guide, head women's lacrosse coach Lindsey Munday.

"I just got along with her right away, I knew I could put up with her all day," Foreman said. "Some people just don't get along with their coaches. I know for sure I can get along with her.”

Munday was equally intrigued with Foreman. After the visit, Munday watched Foreman play briefly in a Palm Springs tournament and immediately offered her a scholarship.

"She's just extremely athletic," Munday said. "That's kind of what we look for in potential players, just athleticism and speed and quickness that we can develop. We really saw the potential in her that at the next level, I think she can really develop into something great in college."

LAX Love

Foreman is not exhausted from her hectic month of travel and play. Instead, she's invigorated.

"It made me realize that I really do love lacrosse and, if I didn't play every day I would definitely miss it," Foreman said. "So I'm really excited to be playing in college and playing every day."

What Foreman seems to love the most about lacrosse is the game's speed, which makes sense given her aversion to plodding baseball games. When Foreman begins describing her favorite parts of the game, her eyes light up and her speech quickens.

"It's so fast," Foreman said. "The flashy stick work, it's so hard to travel and track the ball sometimes and when you end up going field-to-field in seven seconds into the goal, it's just like, 'That was so perfect.'"

That passion Foreman has for the game has made it that much more rewarding for her to see the rise in the interest of girls lacrosse the past 15 years. Whereas Foreman once played with the boys because of the lack of girls teams, now girls begin playing organized lacrosse at an even earlier age.

"We're starting to see all of these third- and fourth-grade teams start to show up, and it's just really exciting," Foreman said. "It opens up a lot of coaching jobs so now a whole bunch of parents are trying to get involved so they can coach their [kids teams]. It's starting to turn into baseball and soccer where they're starting really, really early."

Foreman seems at her happiest when she's talking about, playing or coaching lacrosse. That's good news for the national champion-hopeful USC program.