Hingham star

snags record

Gorman leads on lacrosse team

(Above), Hingham's Shannon Delaney (21) watches her shot get by Quincy's Vanessa Hodgdon (14) at Monday's game. (Left), Hingham's Mary Kate Gorman (6) gets by Quincy's Sarah Ahola (13). (Photos By Robert E. Klein for The Boston Globe)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / May 7, 2009

Nobody handed Jenifer Larose a record book when she took over the Hingham High girls lacrosse program three years ago.

	Discuss
	COMMENTS (0)

So when the 27-year-old coach's star player, Mary Kate Gorman, scored five goals against Hanover in a 17-2 victory April 30, everyone involved assumed the senior center must have climbed atop the Harborwomen's charts for most career points with 304.

But as news of Gorman's achievement's proliferated, the Hingham athletics department received a phone call from the family of Cristi Gigon, whose 311 points from 1992 to 1996 made her the program's career points leader.

"It was just good for us to know who the record-holder was," Larose said of finding out that Gorman still needed seven points to eclipse the record. "Nothing is handed down from one coach to another with all the records."

If Larose chooses to pass records on to her eventual successor, Gorman will most likely be the first name in the book.

On Monday, the senior tri-captain recorded exactly enough points in a 19-5 win against Quincy High School to break the record, which fell after Gorman's final goal of the game. Play was stopped for the second straight game as Gorman's teammates mobbed her with congratulations.

Gorman said the first celebration wasn't a false start.

"That was just celebrating 300 points in general, there wasn't really any certainty about what the record was," Gorman said before describing the second celebration. "It was really a special moment. The whole team got really excited and ran onto the field. Their team was really classy, they were clapping for me as my team ran out.

"It's a moment I'm always going to remember, the highlight of my career."

After Gorman took a pass from Danielle McNiff, her 230th career goal and 312th point came off a left-handed shot. Leading her team in scoring the last three seasons, Gorman also has 82 career assists, one more than Gigon had.

"That means a lot to me honestly," Gorman said. "I would much rather have an assist than a goal. That shows that we're working together as a team. Any one player can score a goal, but an assist shows you're working that much harder to help another player out."

But that is a mind-set Gorman had to consciously work toward since joining the varsity squad as a freshman. After taking over the program when Gorman was a sophomore, Larose noticed teams were beginning to faceguard Gorman because they caught on that she was looking to score rather than pass.

"Definitely, early in my career I was looking for goals, that instant gratification," Gorman admitted. "As I matured and my game matured, I can recognize it's more important to help out teammates than get the glory by myself. The glory is great, I love the attention, but I want it to be spread out because everyone else works as hard as I do."

Beyond Gorman's achievements on the field, this season for the Harborwomen (10-2) is also highlighted by Larose's long relationship with the seniors. The team's other two captains, Laura McKenzi and Lindsey McLoud, were in Larose's eighth-grade history class four years ago at Hingham Middle School.

Gorman wasn't one of Larose's students in middle school, but the history teacher did work with her on a National History Day project. Gorman dressed up as Abraham Lincoln for the assignment.

"She's always been a very dedicated student," Larose said of Gorman, who will be a pre-med major and play lacrosse at Tufts University.

The relationship between coach and players prompted Larose to plan a team spring break trip a few weeks ago to Orlando, where Hingham beat Masconomet Regional High at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex twice.

"One reason I set up the trip back in October is because I knew this group of girls so well," Larose said. "I knew they are not only a unique talent on the field but a great group of girls off it. I have lots of trust in them and expectations for what the season could hold and I wanted to do something special."

Larose, who played lacrosse for Duxbury High and Siena College before taking her first head coaching job in 2005 at Scituate High, is still looking to bring home Hingham's first state championship since 2001.

Last season the Harborwomen finished the season 13-5 after being eliminated in the first round of the Division 2 South sectional. The 14-13 loss to Norwell, which went on to win the sectional before losing to Winchester in the state final, came after Gorman appeared to score a goal as time expired. But the refs ruled the goal no good.

"We definitely think about it," Gorman said. "We don't want to feel that again. That disappointment is definitely a motivating factor for this year. We just need to believe in each other and have confidence and know we can do it because this is definitely our year."

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.