Landry lit fire under overlooked Indians

By STEVEN MOORE

On a Saturday afternoon in April, Wendy Landry stood before her Unionville lacrosse players and offered them a way out.
“I told them that if they weren’t going to play I’d prefer to walk over to the officials right then and forfeit the game,” Landry said of her halftime speech during a 17-5 loss to the Whippets. “The girls just didn’t show up that day.”
Fortunately, Landry did show up for the Indians. Just as she has since 1994, when she was a junior varsity and assistant coach, and when she played at Unionville under longtime head coach Lee Krug.
While the Indians couldn’t turn things around that day, the blowout loss served as a wake-up call for Unionville. And thanks to Landry’s threat, the Indians began to believe that they were good enough – by believing that no one else thought they were.
“We had another game with Great Valley coming up a little after that, and (assistant coach) Jaime (Byrnes) and I told the girls, ‘No one thinks you’re any good, so what’s the big deal?’” Landry said. “We were playing like we could just cruise along, or playing like it didn’t matter. The kids kind of got it after that.”
One week later, the Indians shocked soon-to-be district champ Springfield (Delco) in overtime. One month later, they stunned soon-to-be district runner-up Great Valley in overtime.
And three months later, Wendy Landry has been honored as the Daily Local News’ 2008 All-Area Girls Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
“I love the game, I love the girls, and I love what I do,” Landry said. “They’re not playing because they’re gonna go on and be professional players. They’re doing it because they love the game, and that helped us have so much success this year.”
With Landry honing the offense and Byrnes leading the defense, the Indians finished the season with a 12-8 record, which is not all that impressive by itself. But out of 173 varsity programs in the state of Pennsylvania, according to laxpower.com, Unionville played the toughest schedule of the bunch.
In addition to a Ches-Mont League American Division slate that saw two games each against district finalists West Chester Rustin and Great Valley, the Indians played anyone, anywhere.
They suffered one-goal losses vs. Rustin, perennial Catholic League powerhouse Archbishop Carroll, and 2007 district runner-up Ridley. Add a loss to Maryland’s McDonogh School (ranked sixth nationally by laxpower.com), the win over Springfield (Delco), a convincing playoff victory over Villa Maria, and a third meeting with Great Valley, and you end up with the toughest schedule in the commonwealth.
“Because of who we played all year, when we got into the playoffs, we’re like, ‘We can win, we beat Great Valley, we beat Springfield, we lost by one to Carroll,’” Landry said. “I told them, ‘I believe in you, you’re really good.’”
The Indians were not able to repeat their regular-season win over Great Valley (an outcome that denied the Patriots a Ches-Mont title) in the district semifinal, fading away in a 13-6 loss.
But after that game, Landry’s spirits were lifted by a photograph of senior Emily Reichard outleaping Great Valley star Emily Ellisen to control a draw.
Ellisen is 6-foot-1. Reichard is…well…not 6-foot-1.
“When I saw that, it just described our season,” Landry said. “What was great about this year was “team” is really what it was. Almost every goal-scorer on the team had more than 20 goals, but no one had 50 or 60. We didn’t have any stars, but we just put out such a great effort every game.
“Every single day with those girls was enjoyable,” Landry said. “When the season ended, I obviously went through sincere withdrawal. It was such a great group.”