Sallie Marx (18) on attack
By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
Sallie Marx may be one of the smartest and pound-per-pound, inch-by-inch best lacrosse player in these parts. Marx is all of five-foot-one, with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average going into her senior year at Bainbridge High School.
Despite her lack of height, Marx has been recognized for her play on the field, both for Bainbridge and for Puget Sound Select, a quality club program that has put its stamp in the region for being a strong team.
Marx this year during the Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association season played so well she was named first team All-State as well as All-Conference and Academic All-American.
“I love (love, LOVE!) Sallie Marx,’” says Andie Mackin, a lacrosse parent who is the unofficial spokesman for Bainbridge Girls Lacrosse as well as its director for fundraising. “She’s a quiet, hard working and talented player who will undoubtedly have her year in the spotlight her senior year.
“Sallie really is quick, smart and strategic player, who also happens to be a stellar student.”
Marx just returned from Oshawa, Ontario, Canada where she participated with Puget Sound Select in seven lacrosse games during the Turtle Festival that accompanied the Women’s Lacrosse 2013 World Cup. Between playing games – Puget Sound Select went 5-2 in the seven games, including three games against teams from Japan, Canada and England – Marx and teammates got to watch some of the World Cup action, and that is not a bad gig at all.
It would not be a bad gig to have Marx on your team, either.
“Every coach in the league, if you tell them you can have any player on my team or on Jamie’s team (Asaka, Lakeside coach), they all will say I just want Sallie,” says Tami Tommila, coach of the Bainbridge team and co-coach with Asaka on Puget Sound Select. “The thing with Sallie is she is very bright academically. She is very smart, and nothing rattles her.”
Tommila says she does a lot of team bonding things and at one of them there were about 75 kids and she asked them to name the player they most admired. You are right, they named Marx.
A year ago, Marx , who plays midfield, made the Washington State Regional Lacrosse team. But that should not come as a surprise, considering how much the sport means to her.
“I use to play basketball and soccer, but after my freshman year I focused solely on lacrosse because of the program on Bainbridge and the way this community has grown so much.
“Lacrosse is unlike any other sport I have played. We are so close to each other. Lacrosse is definitely a community, and the way you can start young and you grow up with it. I coach kindergarteners and it’s amazing to see how you start young and can progress to a close knit team and community and be part of something so great on this island.”
Tommila says Marx plays with a lot of intensity and determination. Her lack of height does not deter her from going all out, and because she is very intelligent has a firm grasp on the nuances of the game that allows her to make the proper plays.
“She has an incredible work effort, and does it without complaining,” says Tommila. “And she is very, very humble.”
There is no doubt Marx will go on to study in college somewhere, probably back east where her family is originally from (South Carolina). And despite her deep love for the sport, academics comes first.
“Schools always want the six-foot girl,” says Tommila of college recruiters. “Some of the schools she really wants to go to, she would be one of 40 or 45 kids, and she is the type of kid who needs to play. So I think for her, depending on where she goes to school, and she is looking at lot of different schools, we are hoping one is going to be right for her so she can play.”
Marx knows the limitation her lack of height imposes on her as far as playing in college, so she is thinking a NCAA Division Three school.
“I have been in contact with some coaches from California and on the east coast. I’m still trying to figure out my list, but I definitely want to play, ” she says.
As for her size, Marx says, “I am not the tallest person, but I don’t want to play Division One. I would rather focus on academics and not have lacrosse be the only thing in my life. I love lacrosse, but academics are important to me as well. So I definitely think Division Three is for me.
Next up for Marx and PSS is the Cascade Cup July 26-28 in Snohomish and then in January they go to Palm Springs, Calif. for a tournament.
