Conference: Southern Carolina Conference

Coach: Erin McBurnette

Between the Lines: Head coach Erin McBurnette didn’t take over coaching duties until about a month before the season. … McBurnette has coached at the club, high school and college level… McBurnette played college Lacrosse at Presbyterian College and was a teammate with Marvin Ridge girls lacrosse head coach Melinda Vasconcellos for one season at the school.

Cuthbertson High girls lacrosse head coach Erin McBurnette didn’t even have time to unpack before she had a real chance to meet the Cavaliers girls lacrosse players. That meeting was less than a month before the 2017 season was set to start.  And when McBurnette, who first interviewed for the job in December, did finally land at Cuthbertson she found a team that had been hit hard by graduation and the transfer of several key returning players.

“We are what we are,” McBurnette said. “I moved from Atlanta the day before tryouts started. I moved in Feb. 12. I would unpack boxes and then go to practice. It was a whirlwind the first few weeks. It’s been interesting. The timing was tight for sure.”  But at the halfway point of the 2017 season, McBurnette is as optimistic as ever about turning around the Cavaliers program.

“We are definitely building,” McBurnette said. “We lost 10 or 11 players from last year. We are rebuilding. We have had some successes and we are getting better. But this year is tough for us. We are learning, but we are very young.

“We are relearning our patterns, we are finding out what works for us.  But I am excited to see where we are going to go.”

Senior attacker Taylor Offerdahl is one of the players that McBurnette has counted on so far this season.  “Taylor has really provided some leadership,” McBurnette said. “She has been huge for team cohesion and morale. She works hard and she does everything I ask her to do and then some.”

Caleigh Smith and Lauren Dingee are the Cavaliers two goal keepers.

“When they are both there, they split time,” McBurnette said.

One of McBurnette’s coaching stops before landing in Union County was at AC Lacrosse Clubs. AC stands for Atlanta-Charlotte.

“I’ve been a high school coach, I’ve been a college coach,” said McBurnette, who was a high school All-American lacrosse player at Woodward Academy in Georgia. “I’ve been coaching at a lot of different levels.”

McBurnette has seen a familiar face around the Southern Carolina Conference as she was teammates with current Marvin Ridge girls lacrosse head coach Melinda Vasconcellos at Presbyterian College in South Carolina.  “We hadn’t seen each other since I had graduated,” McBurnette said.