Juniors Indi Capelle and Marit Wolden gear up in their jersey, lace up their cleats, put in their mouth guard and put on their goggles as they head onto the field for warm ups. Capelle and Wolden strive on the field in hopes to become better athletes and leaders and also become D1 athletes one day. The girls’ work ethic is seen as several colleges reach out in hopes to recruit Capelle and Wolden for their college team. When it all comes time to finally commit to the college, the girls take a look at the bigger picture of climate, the schools lacrosse team and the location of the college.
When having a choice to commit to the D1 sport, choosing a college is never easy. Capelle and Wolden have both received a D1 offer at Florida State University for lacrosse and had 24 hours to decide if that was the right choice for them. Florida State University has a new lacrosse program, and Capelle describes the team as a “home away from home.”
“I chose Florida State because the second I got there, it just felt like far enough from Minnesota, but still felt like home. And I really like both my coaches, and I think it’s cool that they’re building their program exactly the way they want it, since it is brand new,” Wolden said.
Success can be defined in several different ways, but these girls see success as more than just achieving your own goals. Success comes on and off the field for Capelle and Wolden as they participate in several clubs and activities around the school, while still making time to prioritize lacrosse. Both girls play lacrosse on a club team as well as being on the school team.
“I would define success as not achieving specific goals you have for yourself, but just feeling accomplished on what you’ve done, no matter if it has achieved your goal or not,” Capelle said.
Several athletes have mixed feelings when committing to a division 1 sport in college whether it is their junior or senior year. College is a huge part of a student’s future because it helps them in any pathway students are taking. Lacrosse tends to recruit students right away to continue to build their team for the future years. But when being on a timeline of one day to decide if this offer is what they want to do, it can be overwhelming and exciting.
“I was definitely really excited. I was also really nervous, because I was put on a timeline of a day. I had only 24 hours to decide. So definitely super overwhelming to have to decide that in just a day. But I was super excited because I knew that that was the school that I wanted to go to. So it wasn’t a hard decision,” Wolden added.
Choosing good players is one thing, but coaches who choose players who are leaders, strong players and players who are committed to the team is another. Capelle says that in her lacrosse career, she is most proud of the teammate she has become, and she always tries to lift her teammates up on and off of the field.
“Both players had key roles on our varsity team in the spring. Marit was one of our four starting defenders and Indi was our most successful and consistent draw taker. As a team placing 4th in the state, we needed all athletes to succeed with whatever their role may be, and these two did that. Off the field, these two show their success in the time they put in volunteering around the community, and the hours they put in coaching,” lacrosse head coach Carly Fedorowski said.
Capelle and Wolden have their big plans after high school. They are both on the road to Florida State University for lacrosse and they both have a plan as to what they will major in. Wolden plans to major in some sort of engineering or special education with a minor in Spanish. And Capelle plans to major in journalism with a hope to go into the news anchor field, and become a sports broadcaster.
“Then for lacrosse, the plan is to try and win a national championship. Hopefully we’ll see. I mean, it’s a brand new program, so it’ll definitely be hard going into the ACC, but that’s my biggest goal for the program,” Wolden added.
