Lena Rockhill is a junior student at C. Milton Wright High School, a transfer from North Harford High. She played volleyball on the Mustang’s varsity team during the fall season, and varsity lacrosse for the Hawk’s before she switched over. In the 2025–2026 school year, she will be attending Radford University in Virginia as a recruited face-off specialist for the Highlander’s D1 women’s lacrosse team. Through a conducted interview, Lena shares her background with the sport, the recruiting process, and advice for anybody else that wants to get recruited.
Growing Up with Lacrosse
Lena has been playing lacrosse for 11 years and grew up with the sport. She started playing recreational lacrosse for local teams, like Bel Air and Hickory Fountain Green, where she learned the sport. When she was in second grade, Lena started practicing with an older team, before she was able to officially join a team, once the club developed a team for her age group. This team was called the Sky Walkers White team, Lena’s been with them ever since. 
Lena’s father and her brother both played division 1 lacrosse at University of Maryland, and she said that they were her inspiration to play lacrosse. Lena mentioned that her parents were the reason she kept playing. She told me,” For a while all I wanted to do was make them proud, even when I lost the love for the sport. They were the best support I could ask for and I am so happy they helped me find the love for lacrosse again.” Lena also said that several coaches were a huge factor in her staying with the sport, Coach Annika, Coach Steve, and Coach Kelly.
Biggest Support
During the interview, I asked Lena who her biggest supporter is. She told me that she doesn’t have just one supporter to shout out, she actually has many people who supported her to get to where she is today. She said, “My parents take the cake on support, no two people are more encouraging and excited for me and my accomplishments. My Uncle Keith has also been beyond excited for me and was always the first one to text or call me before and after a visit, or if he found out a new school had interest in me.” Lena also talked about her best friend Claire, that always supported her even when she didn’t know it, and she was so happy that she got the opportunity to play with her. At the end Lena’s answer, she circled back to her coaches, and how she couldn’t have asked for a better group to learn from. She said that her coaches will be what she misses the most about playing club lacrosse.
Currently
Lena played two years of high school lacrosse at North Harford, and she mentioned that their program wasn’t super advanced, and that the level of play was very different from what she was used to, and that was hard to adjust to. Lena said that it took extra work to get ready for club season, and after both high school seasons she put in a lot of extra time training and practicing. Lena said that she is anticipating C Milton Wright’s program to be at a higher level of play, considering their past scores, and she is ready for that.
Looking towards Radford, Lena’s biggest excitements are creating new bonds with the great group of girls that the college team has put together and being able to compete at a higher level. She added that, “Radford recently got two new coaches and their program has reflected that positively. I am excited to be a part of growing the program even more.”
Recruitment
“Recruiters all have a similar baseline; some coaches do things differently than others. Watching the coach’s processes actually helped me in my decision making. Some coaches are very good with replying to emails and texts and others take forever and don’t really give you an idea of where you stand with them. That can definitely be frustrating sometimes, but you have to be patient and not every coach is going to like you and that’s okay as well. Sometimes when you receive an offer there can be a timeline for when you have to make a decision for that school. Coaches often like to hop on a call just to let you ask any questions, tell you about the school, and so you can get a feel for the coach’s personality, and they can get a feel for yours. After your call is when things typically start to progress. They usually will continue to watch you play and then if they still have interest in you, they will most likely set up another call or text you to try and schedule a visit.”
Any advice to those trying to get recruited?
“My biggest advice is play as hard as you can all the time. These coaches don’t care if you mess up. They want to see what you do after you make a mistake and how you recover. Everyone’s recruiting process is different and you can’t compare yours to anyone else’s, some people commit the first week coaches talk to them and some commit at the end of their junior year. Everyone is on a different timeline, and you can’t worry about what others think because you will drive yourself crazy. A huge factor that I made sure to include in my process was “Would I still love the school if, for some reason, I wasn’t playing lacrosse anymore?”
