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06/21/2018 12:00 AMKylie Brandt certainly kept busy throughout her time at North Haven High School. Kylie played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse for the Indians, and she was a captain for all three teams as a senior. Kylie recently capped off her high-school career by guiding the lacrosse squad to its best season in program history.
Kylie scored 57 goals and had 42 assists on her way to making the All-SCC Team this spring. She helped the Indians post a program-record 11 victories, win the SCC Division II title, and qualify for the SCC Tournament for the first time.
“This year, we were unsure of how the season would go, only returning with four starters,” says Kylie. “But after lots of hard work in the weeks leading up to our first game, after just a game or two, our defense clicked and our offense clicked and together we bred tons of success for the remainder of the season, finishing with double-digit wins for the second time in our program’s history.”
While Kylie enjoys playing each one of her sports, she says that lacrosse has always stuck out to her. Kylie hones her lacrosse skills by playing the sport on a year-round basis.
“I think it’s because it was a new, up-and-coming sport. It’s different from all the other sports that I played,” Kylie says. “When I was younger, I tried swimming and tennis, but I liked the physicality of [lacrosse], while also needing skill to be a good player. I don’t play Premier leagues for any other sport, but lacrosse I play all year.”
Kylie suited up as a midfielder for North Haven’s girls’ lacrosse squad. Head Coach Lois Frankforter says that Kylie was a dominant force from the moment she joined the team as a freshman and kept getting better with each passing season.
“She continued to improve her game each year, getting stronger and stronger in every aspect of her game. She’s demanding so much of herself that it encourages people to keep up with her,” says Frankforter. “She’s a very smart, intuitive player—not just with her stick skills, but her understanding of the game. She’s a pivotal player in making our offense click and keying in on defense what adaptations need to be made during the flow of the game.”
Kylie has been a midfielder since she started playing lacrosse. Her experience at that position helped her make the necessary reads to have an impact at all ends of the field.
“I like both offense and defense. I liked playing in both zones and running up and down the field,” Kylie says. “I like the ability to do both, rather than having to wait for the ball to get to your side of the field.”
Kylie went through some adversity during her high school-career. At the end of her sophomore year, she tore her ACL and missed her junior season for soccer and basketball. The good news was that she returned just in time to play lacrosse that year.
“I had the ball and it just snapped. I knew right away when it happened that I tore it,” she says. “I was definitely nervous [the first time back on the field], but as soon as I started playing, I was fine and everything felt normal again.”
Kylie earned the honor of serving as a captain for all three of her teams in her senior year. Kylie loved leading her teammates, and she wasn’t shy about getting them revved up to bring every ounce of energy they had to the field.
“I’m a pretty intense, competitive person. I would use my intensity to help motivate the other girls,” says Kylie, who will attend Tulane University in New Orleans this fall. “I want to win and I want to pump them up and get them working as hard as they could at practice to keep everybody focused. Earning that position for my senior year, I was very thankful for.”