Lacrosse coach celebrates birth

MILTON — Milton High School teacher Mary Pryor's first passion has always been the fast-paced game of lacrosse. Now, the head coach of the girl's lacrosse team has found a new passion with the birth of her first child and is planning for the excitement of being a coach, teacher, and full-time mother.

Pryor said being a first time mom is an interesting and rewarding experience. She said it is was sort of the "best of both worlds" because she can still incorporate her love of the game and be a mom at the same time.

"That doesn't mean when I am out there on the field I won't be thinking about (my daughter) and wondering if she is OK," Pryor said. "But I am able to balance the two, which I think is a pretty good skill to have."

Pryor, who began at Milton High last year, gave birth to a baby girl named Emma as the school year ended. When the news spread about her birth, she said her team was couldn't wait to see her and the newest member of their team.

"They wanted to come up to the hospital," she said.

Pryor said she has no plans to step down as head coach and that she already has a plan in place on how she will juggle the role. She said her assistant coaches play a big part in it.

"They were both great," she said. "Even when I was still pregnant they were stepping up doing things like painting the field and things like that. I have no doubt they will really step up again."

Since losing half of her team to graduation, Pryor said she will be focusing this season on rebuilding and growing her program and learning from things last year that she would like to change. She said she will be holding meetings to get more people interested in the sport as well as holding more camps. Pryor currently is working on a summer camp for the high school and middle school students of the community to help build their skills of the game.

"You have to stay at it," she said. "If you put that mallet down for a while you are gonna lose it."

Pryor said she plans to bring her daughter to the games and hopes her daughter will be interested in the sport as she grows older. But for now, she is just excited to be able to enjoy her new daughter, who she says is "growing like a weed everyday."

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Lacrosse coach celebrates birth