Photo courtesy of David Leong.
The Vestavia Hills High School girls lacrosse team won its second consecutive Greater Birmingham Youth Lacrosse Association state title.
One of life’s biggest challenges is attaining and maintaining success. Achieving success is the easy part, but sustaining success takes a special individual or group.
The Vestavia Hills High School girls lacrosse team falls in that category. In May, the Rebels won their second consecutive Greater Birmingham Youth Lacrosse Association state title by beating Oak Mountain 12-11 in overtime.
The Rebels’ success can be attributed to head coach Dennis Lipford, who brought in a tough coaching style when he took the program’s helm in 2016.
“I took over, and we had to change the culture and get them to believe that they could be competitive and win,” Lipford said. “… I wanted to make them physically and emotionally tougher, so I was hard on them, because if they could handle me, then they could handle when situations got tense.”
This mentality has led to dominance for the Rebels, especially in the past two seasons. Their last loss was in the 2017 state championship game against Oak Mountain. Since then, the team has not dropped a game and is currently on a 30-game winning streak.
In 2019, the Rebels won 14 of 15 games by 15 goals or more.
May’s state championship game provided the team with its biggest challenge of the season. For the third straight year, the Rebels faced Oak Mountain in the final. They overcame a 9-6 deficit in the second half to force overtime with the score knotted at 11-11.
In overtime, the rules are simple: next goal wins. Oak Mountain received the ball to start, but the Rebels were able to force a quick turnover that led to the game-winning goal from Aimee Perino, a two-time All-American.
The team is stacked with talent, but Lipford said he puts a lot of responsibility on his shoulders when it comes to consistent winning.
“We have the talent to win, but if we lose, it is because of something I did as a coach,” Lipford said. “We watch film, record our games and do a lot of stuff other teams may not do because I don’t want to be the reason we fail.”
The Rebels have many players who have played key roles in their dominance. Perino, Katherine Lipford and Ellington Wesson have all started on the team since eighth grade. Lexie Toney, who joined the team in 2019 after transferring from Hoover, also played well this spring. These four players were the captains for the season and propelled the Rebels to success.
“The girls had a lot of experience and tenacity; they weren’t going to lose,” Lipford said. “We played four out-of-state games against Tennessee teams to help make them better. They always find a way to win, they know how to play lacrosse, and they play very well together.”
The Rebels return all but two seniors next season and will look to earn a third consecutive state championship in 2020.
