Teamwork triumphs: Saugus girls lacrosse banking on historical season

By Dom Nicastro

Barbara Guarente, the head coach of the Saugus High School girls lacrosse team, has been leading her team with a vision focused on growth and teamwork. As she navigates her second year with the varsity team and the eighth year of the program overall, she shared insights into the team’s current season, strategies and player dynamics during a recent interview.

Saugus started out by winning four of its seven games this season.

Guarente highlighted the team’s encouraging start to the season, which she considers one of the best beginnings in the program’s recent history. She expressed optimism about qualifying for the tournament for the first time, citing upcoming challenging games.

“Hopefully, this year our plan is to make it to the tournament for the first time,” she said, emphasizing the significance of the milestone.

The coach detailed substantial improvements in player skills, particularly in “transition downfield” and “teamwork.” She noted that the players are now comfortable relying on one another rather than just a few individuals, which has enhanced the team’s overall dynamic.

“They’re going to everybody on the team and not just picking out one or two players that they feel comfortable with,” Guarente explained, highlighting a shift toward a more inclusive and cooperative play style.

Despite a promising season, Guarente pointed out the difficulty in retaining young talent, as many trained players often move to other schools. This attrition impacts team stability and growth but also opens opportunities for new players to step up.

“We trained 10 eighth-graders and one came back; the rest went to other schools,” she recounted, describing a common challenge in maintaining team numbers.

Leadership on the team is strong, with captains Violet Hawley, Juliana Scalis and Nina Penachio bringing unique strengths to their roles. Each captain has contributed significantly, both in scoring and in boosting team morale.

“Violet is a great defender, very aggressive and plays mid and defense,” Guarante said. “Wherever you need her. She’s worked really hard. Nina is an attack person with great skill work and catching and shooting on net and getting her teammates rallied. And Juliana plays the mid also and tries to get the play set up and works hard at communicating with everybody to get in position and pass it around. All three of them have scored which is nice.”

Sara Rovcorin has handled net duties.

Coach Guarente emphasized the need for consistency as the main area for improvement. She expressed a desire for the team’s practice performance to translate more reliably into game situations.

“Consistency would be nice,” Guarente said. “To see whatever you see in practice you would love to see in the game.”