Riley Smith has two passions in life: art and lacrosse. She likes to draw and paint people, landscapes and other scenes.
She also likes to display her artistry on the lacrosse pitch.
Thus, the question begged to be asked—has the Steinert High School junior ever painted a lacrosse scene?
“No,” she said. “That would be cool though. I think I might do that over the summer.”
If Smith decides to do a self-portrait, it would be of a talented player who is running the show for the Spartans. As one of a few club lacrosse players that have slowly been trickling into the program, Smith is one of those players whose worth goes way beyond her statistics.
“She’s a really good support system for the girls,” coach Lorraine Heisler said. “If she can score, I encourage her to do that. But it’s more that she helps set up our plays, she sees the cuts, everything like that. That’s more of her role. She’s good on the assist end of things.”
Smith, now a midfielder, started out as a defender. Still, though, she doesn’t classify herself as a player who looks to score. She prefers to stay outside and “monitor,” helping others find ways to go to goal instead.
When it was jokingly suggested she was the brains behind the operation, Smith laughed and said “I guess so.”
Smith got involved in lacrosse almost by default. In fact, she doesn’t remember exactly how she got started.
She eventually signed up to play in the Robbinsville recreation program in fourth grade and after some early pitfalls, she began to embrace the sport.
“It was extremely hard and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this,’” she said. “But I caught on quick.”
From Robbinsville, Smith began playing with Princeton-based Ultimate Lacrosse. It was almost like starting over, as she was suddenly surrounded by much more experienced players. She used that to her advantage, however.
“I was one of the people who wasn’t as good as the other girls on that team, but it helped me with my skills and just allowed me to further my knowledge about the sport,” she said. “I was able to be more competitive and learn different things and different ways to do things.”
Despite her club background, Smith spent a year on Steinert’s junior varsity squad since the varsity team was loaded with experienced seniors. While on JV, she began helping first-year players learn the sport.
Smith was elevated to varsity as a sophomore and, despite not being considered a scorer, pumped in 18 goals.
Heisler could see she was the kind of player a team could be built around.
“This is her sport,” Heisler said. “She played field hockey and things like that. But now she’s totally committed to lacrosse and that’s what she’s really focusing on. For someone to have that much dedication to the sport you could build a program just around that dedication.”
And while Smith was happy to be on varsity, there was one problem. She was used to winning with Ultimate Lacrosse, but the Spartans struggled to a 4-12 mark last season.
“It was frustrating,” Smith said. “It’s kind of hard. We don’t have a feeder program. It is difficult, you have to have the girls kind of learn the sport in high school and work with it, and it’s kind of hard when they play a different sport. Lacrosse isn’t really their first sport. So I understand. It makes sense. But it is difficult sometimes.”
It’s gotten better this year, as Smith had five goals and five assists in Steinert’s 5-1 start. One of her favorite targets has been senior Paige Meszaros, who followed a 48-goal season last year with 29 scored through the first six games.
“It’s great playing with Riley,” Meszaros said. “She brings a lot of positivity to the field and she works really hard. She’s a good teammate to have.”
Smith feels there is a vast difference between the 2015 and 2016 Spartans, in more ways than just wins and losses. She prides herself on being a good teammate and feels the players around her return the favor.
“We all have such a strong bond with each other, it’s crazy,” she said. “Last year, it was so different from how it is now. This year, we just work so well together, and it’s so weird to see the team from last year and this year and how we work this year. All the passes, we know where everyone is.”
And although Smith was only fourth on the team in scoring and goals, there was no doubt in Heisler’s mind she is a major factor in making the offense go.
“Riley brings a lot of experience and knowledge of the game,” the coach said. “She helps the younger players, she helps them to work our offense, things like that. She just brings different and new ideas to the table that we can build off of. Instead of doing the same old thing, now we’re trying to step up her game a bit. We’re using her experience in playing in her Ultimate league. We’re trying to use her to help bring our team to a different level as well.”
It is a role that Smith cherishes.
“I like it, I think it’s important,” she said. “It would be fun to score. The thing is, I kind of stay on the outside. It’s just how I’ve always been playing so its good to stick with it.”
Smith plans on attending college but is focusing on academics before lacrosse, saying that she might just stick to club or intramural lacrosse. But she enjoys the sport so much she may just freeze a moment for a lifetime by putting it on canvas this summer.
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