Globe North Sports

Winchester coach

takes players to next level

Ontso builds on lacrosse network

Kelsi Tucci (left) will play for the University of Connecticut and Caroline Martignetti for Boston College this fall. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / April 9, 2009

A s fields thaw across New England, Suzanne Ontso sits down at her computer, searching for women's college lacrosse schedules across the region.

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'I try to see every one of my alums play locally at least one game every year; I try to find when they play each other.'

Suzanne Ontso

She cross-references those games and dates with the 20-game regular-season schedule of her own Winchester High girls' program and then maps out a plan to try to catch one of her former Sachem players in action.

Travel is not an issue: Ontso already makes a one-hour daily trek from her home in Boylston to coach her team in Winchester. With 11 of her former players suiting up at the next level, she often will take in several college games, at opposite ends of New England, on the weekends.

"I try to see every one of my alums play locally at least one game every year; I try to find when they play each other," said Ontso in a cellphone conversation as she was driving to Hanover, N.H., last Saturday to see a former player, Tissy O'Connor, and Cornell face Ivy League rival Dartmouth.

Since she started the Winchester High program 16 years ago, Ontso has had 54 players play at least one year of college lacrosse, ranging from Division 1 to club teams.

"It's great to see Winchester on the roster and it is such great motivation for our kids who say, 'Wow, I can play in college,' " said Ontso, who did not play lacrosse at Algonquin Regional in Southborough, because the sport was not yet offered, but did play at Ithaca College in upstate New York.

Her current Sachems roster, the defending Division 2 state champion, features one of its smallest senior classes in memory (four players), but captains Caroline Martignetti and Kelsi Tucci will play at Boston College and the University of Connecticut, respectively, next fall, while Hannah Hurley hopes to play for Franklin Pierce.

"It will be weird because all I will think about is making her proud," Tucci said of the thought of Ontso traveling to watch her play next season. "I know she brought me up to be such a successful player. It was her that brought me to that position."

In Winchester's first two games, both wins, Tucci collected four goals and four assists while Martignetti had five goals and one assist.

Since her arrival, Ontso has worked hard to develop a lacrosse network that extends beyond the boundaries of the high school that has fostered winning. From the girls' youth lacrosse program that she founded in town in 1999 to keeping in touch with her former players, Ontso keeps everyone connected. Current Sachems players coach in the youth league, and several former players come back each year to scrimmage the varsity.

Ontso also takes her team to watch one of their former teammates play a college game each year. Martignetti and Tucci vividly recall their freshman year when they watched Molly Collins and Michelle Bussichella play for Boston University.

"I was just blown away," said Martignetti, whose sister, Anita, played at Babson and is now a coach at Manhattanville College. "I was just looking at the level of girls and how much different it was from high school lacrosse, how much time and commitment they put into it. That's when I thought I really wanted to put my time and effort into playing college."

'I try to see every one of my alums play locally at least one game every year; I try to find when they play each other.'

Suzanne Ontso

In many respects, lacrosse offers more opportunity for high school players than other sports because, as Ontso points out, players don't need a certain build or height as in basketball or softball. But she acknowledges the danger in having sent so many players to college is that it can inflate the expectations of current players and their parents.

"We do more managing of expectations so that people know," said Ontso, adding that only 10 to 20 female players nationwide earn full scholarships each year. "So when someone hears 'scholarship' that might [be a partial scholarship]. But with the cost of school right now, any money is fantastic. But not every kid can get them. We have kids in Division 2, Division 3, and on club teams. They are just playing because they love the sport. To me, it's fantastic when 20 people on a big campus already know your name instantly. That's pretty cool."

Despite all the success of individual players, Winchester didn't have its team breakthrough until last season. After losing in the state title game five times (2002 and 2005-08), Winchester edged Norwell 9-8 last year for the program's first state championship.

Ontso "was out-of-her-mind happy," Martignetti recalled. "All the seniors were so happy to have that under wraps before graduating. Our team worked so hard for it. It was bound to come."

Graduating 10 seniors who accounted for 60 percent of the offensive output last year - much of which came from leading scorer and current Notre Dame freshman Megan Sullivan (79 goals last year) - Winchester isn't resting on its laurels.

Sullivan's younger sister, Lauren, already has a team-high 10 goals and three assists this season.

"That was my junior year championship; this [would be] my senior year championship," said Martignetti, who collected 53 goals and 15 assists last year. "I'm not thinking 'Oh, I got one and I'm done.' Not for one second. None of the girls are."

And while that elusive championship has only added to the Winchester lacrosse lore, Ontso knows the fleeting nature of mystique.

"With tradition, you have to keep it going or it goes away," she said. "The coaches and I can tell you who was good 10 years ago, but does anyone else remember? That's why we have to jump for it every year, we can't stop."

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.