Hand’s Forrest Ready for Collegiate Leap

Hand senior Christy Forrest and Amherst College women's lacrosse coach Christine Paradis both let out a collective sigh of relief when Christy took herself off the recruiting market. Paradis got her goaltender of the future, and for Christy, the long courting process was finally over.

Christy, a senior goaltender for the Hand girls' lacrosse team, recently made her final decision on where she'd be taking her talents next fall. After months of contacting coaches, being scouted, and traveling, Christy found what she had been looking for in Amherst, lifting a huge weight off the goalie's shoulders. Now Christy can get back to what she does best: leading the Tigers to wins and postseason success.

"I've been focused on this; it has been my main priority since freshman year," Christy says. "That's when I decided I wanted to play in college. Deciding this summer on Amherst was a relief that the process was over. The prestige of school is amazing and the fact that lacrosse has given me an opportunity to go somewhere like this is overwhelming."

A lacrosse player since 4th grade, Christy has been rising up the ranks, making her way through Madison Youth Lacrosse and playing for club teams like the Noreasters and Newlax. As a Tiger, she has enjoyed notable success, earning All-SCC honors as a sophomore and a junior, First Team All-State as a sophomore, and All-American Honorable Mention last season. A year ago, Christy also helped fuel the Tigers' run to the SCC and state finals.

It is no wonder that with such a sparkling résumé that numerous college programs were biding for Christy's services. Still, the process of being recruited wasn't all some might think it was cracked up to be as Christy was responsible for getting her own name out there and letting the lacrosse world know about her.

"In this day and age, in order to be seen you have to play with a summer team," says Christy. "Not only is it expensive, but we flew to Florida and went to the Naval Academy just to be seen. When you are there you have to impress, play a game, and coaches are watching and they have to be impressed. The biggest part of it is getting on coaches' radar; it can be very discouraging when you put out 50 emails and only get two or three back in the next few weeks."

Pile that pressure on top of everything she was dealing with last year and one can understand why Christy was ready for everything to be said and done.

"There was a specific part of last lacrosse season when the stresses of being a part of my team, SCCs, state finals, having talked to coaches at the same time, taking SATs, and coaches telling you if you don't have a certain score on your SAT you can't come, that is when it was really coming to a head and got really stressful," she says.

But with the help of her family and especially her dad, Lance, Christy pushed through narrowing her choices down to three schools: Brown, Villanova, and Amherst. The first two schools were Division I programs, although Christy ultimately decided it was Amherst, a DIII school, that was best for her. So this past summer Christy took herself off the market, verbally committing to Amherst. The school offered her athletic support through its admissions office and Christy applied for early decision in November before officially getting into Amherst in December.

"There are plenty of things that kind of separate Amherst from the other schools," she says. "The affordability, liberal arts education, there are small classrooms instead of sitting in lecture hall like you'd be at a Division I school. There is more of a one-on-one special training especially, but the campus is what really drew me in."

Christy says she hopes to jump into a starting role right away. In an effort to do so, she is focused on her physical fitness between now and next fall, saying that while most goalies worry less about endurance, being in the best shape she can be in will only help her earn that spot.

"Amherst is a pretty high-ranked team in Division III. My goal is always to be a contributing factor, take my game to the next level ,and bring my team to the next level," Christy says. "Hopefully, we can win a national championship, make a final four, all that stuff to take the team to the next level."

Certainly, the pressure will mount again once she goes away to school and all the hype surrounding her game turns to expectations, but for now, Christy is ready to just enjoy her senior season at Hand.

Says Christy: "For me, last year was a dream come true having made it to the state finals for the first time ever in the history of Hand. My expectation this year is to get right back there and be a contributing factor as a leader."