APRIL 27, 2024
By Marissa Kleckner
Lauren Boyle, a lifelong athlete who found her home playing ultimate frisbee during her college years at Northern Arizona University is now taking on the head coaching position for the DC Breeze.
Boyle has been coaching at various levels of the sport since 2010 and also played competitively until 2019 with a highlight of being a two-time captain and club national semi-finalist with the Denver Molly Brown Women's Club. After playing in Denver, she found her way to Washington, DC in 2019 where she played with DC Scandal, in addition to her continued coaching commitments.
Boyle's passion for the sport is apparent when speaking with her. She strives to grow not only her team but ultimate frisbee as a whole, hoping to bring in more fans, viewers, sponsorships, and other opportunities for her athletes.
With a mindset of helping all players to be the best versions of themselves, working as a team, and having fun, Boyle heads into her first Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) game tonight.
“I'm excited to see what this combination of athletes, coaches, and staff can do,” Boyle said. “It's a great group. We're all working really hard to give ourselves the opportunity to be champions.”
Upon signing her contract as the DC Breeze head coach, Boyle commented on the team's history of putting matchups against the New York Empire on a pedestal. In prior seasons, much of the team's successes or failures seemed to be determined by the outcome of those games. At first, Breeze players, management, and fans may have been a bit skeptical of Boyle’s perspective; however, after talking with her and understanding the mindset she was bringing to the team, her comments were well received.
When asked about her outlook on the season, Boyle mentioned that with so many big-name players moving around, she believes it will be a very close division that's anyone’s for the taking.
“It's a long season,” Boyle said. “We want to look at it as a journey rather than all to prepare for one big thing. We have to attack all games and treat all opponents with the respect we do for the Empire. If we want to do well this season, we have to maximize every opportunity to win.”
In addition to this mindset, Boyle brings to the team new metrics to define success. Without ignoring the importance of winning games, she has put in place a series of rubrics to allow players to define success in a multitude of ways. By having quantitative ways to hold each athlete accountable to themselves and the team, Boyle and her staff hope to create a community where athletes can advocate for themselves and push their potential.
Boyle’s first game is taking place under some very bright lights as the UFA’s inaugural Super Series game set up as a showdown between two of the league’s top teams, which can both make a reasonable claim that they were the second-best team in the UFA in 2023. Boyle is undaunted, however, and plans to look at it like any other game, any other opportunity to maximize winning, any other chance to have fun. She expects the team to go out and do their best but does not see the results as determining the rest of their season.
“It's one game; it doesn't define the rest of our season,” Boyle said. “No matter the results, I want us to come out hungry and continue to push ourselves to be our best.”
Having secured their number one prospect for Head Coach, the Breeze are well-situated to climb to the top of the East Division.
