How Chambersburg lacrosse coaches are building success from the ground up

It’s typical for young athletes to get involved in sports like baseball, basketball or football. But building success – whether it’s as a team or individually – in a sport outside of the mainstream takes a strong grassroots commitment. That’s what Shane Henry and Joe Wilmont are looking to do, respectively, with the Chambersburg girls and boys lacrosse programs.

Wilmot helped lay the foundation of the Chambersburg boys program at the beginning, a player on the school’s first varsity teams started by his father, Tim, in 2005. However, the program couldn’t sustain its initial momentum. “We had a lot of success early on,” Joe Wilmot, a 2008 Chambersburg graduate, said.

“As an athlete that played multiple sports, I was able to recruit a bunch of athletes, so we had a really athletic team when we started. The challenge that we have now … once we got that initial push of ‘it’s something fun and new’ we then struggled to get kids to come out. We struggled to get athletes because they invested in other sports before the age we were starting our youth program.

” Gold rush | How Franklin County athletes fared at the Mid-Penn track and field meet GameTimePA greats | Here are 10 central Pa. high school football players who defined the region Wilmot came back to coach the program in 2021 and this year, led his team to a 10-8 record. While the boys program had some initial success but is now looking to rebuild, Henry’s girls program is reaching unprecedented heights.