Like state champ Bayport-Blue Point girls lacrosse, Emma Brown wasn't going to be denied

Emma Brown was determined not to let anyone else tell her when her high school career was finished.

Seven games into the season, Brown, a Bayport-Blue Point senior defender committed to Stanford, broke her ankle, and even her own parents tried to downplay her expectations of returning this season. But Brown started with physical therapy as soon as she could with the goal of being a part of a championship run.

The senior hoped to be on the field for a county championship return, but her ankle didn’t allow that. The finish line was moved to the Long Island championship game, but still, her ankle wasn’t quite ready for that either.

But Brown was on the field the final three games of the year, most importantly when Bayport-Blue Point celebrated a state Class C girls lacrosse title with a 17-7 victory over Queensbury at SUNY Cortland. 

“I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m pretty emotional because there was a point where my parents were telling me, ‘Don’t expect to be back at all,’ ” Brown said. “Just going to [physical therapy] multiple times a week and doing everything I can to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. The second I was able to come back and feel completely normal was such an amazing feeling.”

“She wanted to be back for her team,” coach Ryan Gick said. “She knew how important it was. It wasn’t even for selfish reasons. She knew she wanted to be a part of what we were doing. She knows how important she is and she loves being around her teammates.”

Brown never lost faith in herself or her teammates’ ability to reach the final weekend of the season, with or without her. Midfielders Kailey Bruckner, Emma Shanahan, Olivia Brady, Aubrie Eisfeld, Ava Meyn and defenders Payton Weybrecht, Shannon Carney and Abigail Bishop with Sophia Diaz in goal played significant defensive roles in the Phantoms’ state championship season.

“There is so much talent, younger and older, I trusted them completely and they all filled the spots,” Brown said. “They honestly all did a fantastic job and I think the team was the same with and without me, which is just something that’s so special to see.”

Bayport-Blue Point went 21-1 despite a schedule that included four county champions from Long Island and the Class B state champion (Victor). Bayport-Blue Point defeated Victor, 13-10, with Brown healthy early in the season.

“I think our versatility is one of the best things about us,” Bruckner said. “We can play against anybody. Our offense is always working against different things and our defense, you can throw anything at us and we can combat it, and we can come back even stronger.”

“We take pride in that side of the ball,” Gick said about the defense. “I think that’s where our play starts. It’s a defensive unit, it’s not just one kid taking the other team’s top kid and marking her, it’s seven kids playing connected defense and eight kids with our goalie because she’s very much a part of what we do defensively.”

Bayport-Blue Point won its second state Class C championship over the last three years this spring. Losing last year in the Suffolk Class C final was a consistent motivator throughout the season.

“It put fuel to the fire,” Shanahan said. “We knew this is what we were coming for this year and we showed up every single game, every single play, every single quarter. That’s what got us here, and now, it got us a state championship.”