Meredith Prior
Meredith Prior, Head Coach of MethodLAX/Storm Club Lacrosse and North Andover High School has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted National Double-Goal Coach® Award presented by TeamSnap for her positive impact on youth in sports.
Prior is one of 50 national recipients of the Double-Goal Coach® award, named for coaches who strive to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. The award includes a $200 prize, a certificate, and mention within the websites and newsletters of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a national non-profit developing Better Athletes, Better People through youth and high school sports. Prior and the other coach winners will be recognized at PCA’s National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Benefit Sponsored by Deloitte to be held on April 28th, 2018 at Maples Pavilion on Stanford University’s campus in honor of their 20th Anniversary.
“Meredith helps her players win on and off the field” said Beth O’Neill-Maloney, Executive Director of PCA- New England, the local Chapter of Positive Coaching Alliance. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience and serving as a Double-Goal Coach®, Meredith helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
Prior inherited a good team from a phenomenal coach and knew she needed to keep up with the mental approach to the game, but felt an opportunity to relate to them differently due to her age. She is a great balance of being intense and motivating, while also being supportive of the girls on a personal level. “I saw the potential in the girls, but as a teacher know that they are teenagers...sports for me helped me going through a lot of things in my life at that time. They know they can come talk to me about things, " Prior said.
It’s that connection with the girls that has lead Prior and her team to success. She begins engagement with the girls before they even get to high school Her players will attend practices for the younger girls and help with drills and coaching. Prior created a Youth Lacrosse night at the high school where the youth girls come to a varsity game and get in free with their jersey on, they cheer the varsity on and then they get to play a game at halftime with the varsity girls creating a tunnel for them and cheering them on as they enter the field. “It’s important that they see the high school girls and the coach as role models", she said.
References pointed out that, “Meredith does the little things that good coaches do. Her enthusiasm for teaching the game is exhibited in her attitude toward the girls. She treats the girls with respect and enjoys watching them grow together as a team.” It’s precisely this approach that lead North Andover to the state championship in her 3rd year.
Prior has also created a program called Lacrosse Leadership to develop her players into leaders using lacrosse as the vehicle to share the why and how of what it takes to become leaders on and off the field. The program brings in mentors to talk with the girls and share their experiences in lacrosse which helped shape them into leaders. They focus on the characteristics and confidence it takes to rise to the top as a leader on your team, in the classroom and in the community.