Last June, the Blue Devils cemented their legacy, winning their first state championship in program history. It was a day of commemoration and celebration, not just for the coaches and the 22 girls on the 2025 roster, but for the team’s founders and builders.
In just under 30 years, girls lacrosse at WHS went from an idea to a distinguished, nationally-recognized program, worthy of the praise and admiration of the alumni who first shaped the team back in the late 1990s.
Head coach and reigning State Champion Katie DaSilva said, “It’s kind of funny when I think about how much the program has grown, because I’ve been with the program for 10 years now. In those 10 years, I’ve seen the program have its first-ever sectional title, along with two more, and the first-ever state title, which is huge.”
It has been about three decades since the girls lacrosse team received board approval, which alumni believe was in 1996. However, many of the players started practicing much earlier.
“In the spring of 1995, if Westfield residents passed by the fields at Roosevelt Intermediate School or Elm Street on a Saturday morning or afternoon, they might see an unusual sight,” said Pamela Lygate Boccia, a member of the first varsity team, now a teacher at Millburn High School. “Girls running around with lacrosse sticks, some of them the original wooden kind.”
Before 1995, girls lacrosse was not part of Westfield’s widely respected and prestigious athletic programs or the community itself. WHS was one of the first public schools in the area to adopt a women’s lacrosse team, let alone an entire program.
Today, girls in Westfield begin playing lacrosse in their early years of elementary school, some even before. In 1995, it was more than likely that these girls had never seen a lacrosse stick. This would soon change thanks to a Westfield resident and her daughter. Lois Hely, a Westfield resident and parent, had a vision: she was the founder of the high school program, and her daughter, Meghan Hely Walsh, was one of the team’s first captains.
“Coach Hely and her daughters [Walsh] and Rosy [Hely] had so much enthusiasm and patience, and were willing to teach us to play a new sport at 15 and 16 years old, a key factor in stirring and maintaining interest in the game for older girls,” added Boccia. “It’s amazing to see the growth from a fledgling program to a high school powerhouse in just over 25 years.”
“I learned from other girls that most public high schools did not have many, if any, team sport opportunities for girls,” said Hely, who referred to lacrosse as her “first love.” Hely played field hockey, basketball and lacrosse in high school, but when she went on to Gettysburg College, she was “very disappointed to learn they had no girls lacrosse team.”
However, with a group of friends who also had a passion for the game, Hely helped to create the women’s lacrosse team at Gettysburg. And after college, she continued to be a trailblazer in women’s lacrosse.
“When I was raising our daughters here in Westfield, I started to teach them simple stickwork from an early age, and they loved it,” Hely said. “They would bring their friends over to learn also, so we started a girls youth program first.” Hely was motivated by the “girls [who] really wanted to play this awesome sport,” claiming that the girls were her motivation.
In the program’s first season, the Helys focused on the fundamentals. They spent time teaching their players the basics of lacrosse, working on throwing and catching, cradling and scooping up ground balls.
For the 1998 season, in which Walsh was a captain, the Blue Devils joined the Central Jersey Women’s Lacrosse League. This change brought more challenging competition, facing New Jersey’s top public schools, along with private schools such as Oak Knoll, Kent Place and Pingry, who have remained among the top teams in the state since.
While today’s team continues to face the same schools in high-level competition, the expectations have evolved greatly. Girls are required to have exceptional talent to make the varsity team as an underclassman, while the freshman and junior varsity teams provide their players with the skills to eventually have the opportunity to compete at the varsity level.
“Skill-wise, we are doing things that were not done even ten years ago when I first joined the program,” added DaSilva. “But what’s more impressive to me is the growth of lacrosse IQ. As a whole, we are so much more advanced, and these girls handle college-level offenses and defenses.”
Hely is proud of the progress the team has made over the years, but some of the same challenges for the program that exist today parallel the program’s roadblocks in the 1990s, such as field availability. However, “the biggest stumbling block” in jumpstarting the program was funding.
The founders had to convince the “district to officially add the sport, so [they] could play other high school teams, and this took a few years of constant persuasive effort.” The board was reluctant because they did not want to increase the school budget, and the work of hiring coaches and planning the schedule was tedious.
“We hatched the idea to ‘self-fund’ the sport, meaning we would raise all the money necessary and donate it to the school district, and the athletic department would run the program, which the new boys ice hockey team had recently done,” said Hely. “Raising that much money was a daunting task, but the girls were absolutely determined to make it happen, and the parents and many community members got behind their effort.”
The team members and families raised a significant amount of money, not only for the program, but also “enough additional to make a large contribution to the initial project to turf Kehler Stadium.”
“It was just an awesome experience to be a part of, and I bet every one of those founding lacrosse girls will always remember it,” added Hely. And, she couldn’t be more right, as many of the founding players of the program still reflect on their experience today.
For example, Megan Clarke Williams, who was in the same class as Boccia, spent most of her athletic career as a gymnast, but lacrosse offered her a change from an individual-focused sport to a team one. “Being a part of the first-ever [Westfield] girls lacrosse team was such a special time in my life,” said Williams. “Not only did it make me a well-rounded athlete, but it also opened the door for me to play at the collegiate level.”
Another member of Boccia’s class, Christina Ho Keaulana, added that “[Walsh] convinced [her] to pick up a lacrosse stick and try a brand new sport that no girls in Westfield had ever played.” Keaulana scored the first-ever goal in program history “off a dime pass from [Walsh].”
Keaulana went on to become co-captain of Brandeis University’s recreational lacrosse team, play for the Hawai’i Women’s Lacrosse Club for a few years and became a varsity girls lacrosse coach herself at St. Ignatius College Prep School.
Through all her experience on the field, she was able to take away more than physical growth and skills. “I always share with people that my formative years spent participating in organized sports truly shaped who I became as an adult,” added Keaulana. “I learned important lessons about losing together and winning together. I learned about digging deep and having grit when your team is the underdog.”
Joscelyn Puschel Rios, another teammate of Boccia’s, has had the chance to witness the program’s growth and historic 2025 season, as she remains an active member of the program’s coaching staff today.
“As a member of Westfield’s very first girls lacrosse team and now the freshman girls lacrosse coach for nearly 15 years, it was incredible to witness them capture their first state championship,” said Rios.
“That achievement brought incredible pride and joy to me and to all the many, many people who worked to start the program and supported it and youth lacrosse in town over the years,” said Hely.
While the Westfield girls lacrosse program has undoubtedly evolved since its inception, it has remained the same at its core: the entirety of the program, every member from 1995 to 2026, are proud to be a part of the team, and every player, coach and woman alike helped to contribute to not only the first state title, but the legacy of Westfield girls lacrosse.
