Stringham becomes Clay’s first college lacrosse player

Clay graduate Jasmine Stringham is the school’s first lacrosse player, boys or girls, to go to the next level.
That’s not bad, considering the first year for both varsity lacrosse teams was 2017-18.
Stringham was all set entering her senior year to play for Urbana University, located between Dayton and Columbus, but that came to an end after Urbana permanently closed its doors last spring. She and Clay coach Jason Allen reached out to other schools, and she ended up signing at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan.
“I felt bad for her,” Allen said. “After that happened, she reached out to me and texted me, and said, ‘I need some help. I want to play at the next level and Urbana just announced they are closing their doors. So, I just started making some phone calls to some NAIA coaches that I was friends with, and Dan Teskey at Madonna — he really wanted her.”
Getting Madonna to believe Stringham was the player for them was not a hard sell, said Allen.
“Basically, since I was (coaching) at Indiana Tech for three and a half years and we whooped up on them pretty bad, he knew I could spot talent,” Allen said.
“They all did — Madonna, Siena Heights and Asbury were the three that called and they all knew what I was looking for, and they all said, ‘Well, if you say she can start for me, then this is a good player.’ I said, ‘It’s a diamond in the rough. You’re not going to find something like this.’ So, basically, he (Teskey) didn’t ask for stats. He didn’t ask for anything. I basically told him she’s a midfielder who can do draws, she’s fast, she’s quick, she did track for a while, and she knows what she’s doing.”
Stringham had no senior season because of the coronavirus pandemic, but as a junior she had 46 goals, four assists, 88 ground balls and caused 18 turnovers.
“I think it is her determination and she has good speed, and I think she’s very coachable,” Allen said. “She’s open to listen. Some players, when they are that old, they say, ‘Whatever,’ and they roll their eyes, but she doesn’t do stuff like that. She’s a great kid. She was a junior captain for me, and she deserves every bit of it.”
 
Focusing on lacrosse
Stringham played tennis and ran track for Clay, but didn’t start playing lacrosse until her sophomore year. Once she did, she fell in love with the sport. Eventually, lacrosse became her primary sport.
“When they started the program, it just seemed really interesting,” Stringham said. “My friends and I decided we were going to go out and play, and then all of my friends backed out and I showed up to the first practice and I really liked it. I like how competitive it is, and how much teamwork you need to be able to do it because it really lets you get closer to a lot of players.”
She not only played for Clay, she played travel lacrosse and attended skills camps. It was at a summer camp after her junior year that the Urbana coach noticed her and asked her to play there.
Plus, winning draws, which correspond to face-offs in hockey, are a special skill for any lacrosse player. A draw starts the game, each quarter, and is played out after each goal. If you can win every draw, your team can stay on offense the entire time.
“It starts off the game — starts off all of it, drawing, and it’s a lot of running and you pretty much are involved the whole game. You never get bored,” Stringham said.
Stringham, who will major in business marketing, says Madonna became a “good fit” for her, calling it “a really good atmosphere to go into.” She is in communication with coach Teskey and the players.
“I am conditioning. I haven’t really gotten a set schedule for when we start anything, so I’ve been running on my own and going to the gym. I’ve been looking for a couple (summer lacrosse teams), but I’ve aged out of them,” Stringham said.
Stringham said she might not be playing college soccer if it weren’t for Allen.
“He brought me around,” Stringham said. “For my first year I had a different coach, and she taught me how to throw, how to catch — the beginnings, and then coach Allen came around and he taught me how to play — the mindset for the game, how to work the field, work with the girls and be able to take it to the next step. I think he really helped me move on from that beginner to the actual player.”
Although Stringham is the first Clay lacrosse player to move on, Allen says the opportunity is there for others.
“I always tell the girls this, and they don’t always understand this, is that there are so many lacrosse programs in the United States and there are not enough players, and the girls don’t understand what I am saying,” Allen said. “I tell them, ‘Every one of you could play in college somewhere, whether it’s D-III, a junior college, NAIA — something.’”
Meanwhile, the Clay program took a hit without a spring season, but Allen is already in the process of recharging the program and building a feeder system.
“We’ve taken steps to get better each year, even though the first year I wasn’t there,” Allen said. “I was brought in to basically grown the program and get numbers — make it bigger because the first year they had 19 or 20.
“The second year, my first year, we had 19 and this last year we were going to have 22. So, two of the girls who graduated this year are staying around and going to the University of Toledo and they want to help get the junior high program going, so we are going to try and do that.”