June 10, 2025 // Diocese

Saint Joseph Girls Lacrosse Claims First State Title

Eric Peat

It was a season of firsts for Josie Walters and the Saint Joseph High School girls lacrosse team.

The Huskies’ head coach was not only in her inaugural campaign at Saint Joe, but also her first year as a head coach at the high school level – and her first year coaching the sport of lacrosse.

And it culminated in the program’s first ever state championship.

“I learn something new every day, and I’ve tried to absorb as much as I could since the day I got this position,” Walters told Today’s Catholic, referencing her time spent studying the game, attending Notre Dame lacrosse games, and connecting with lacrosse champions in Indianapolis who are working to grow the sport. “I’m open to where this experience is going to take me.”

Photo provided by Saint Joseph High School
Members of the Saint Joseph High School girls lacrosse team pose for a photo after winning the Indiana Girls Lacrosse Association Class 1A state championship on Saturday, May 31, at Noblesville High School.

On Saturday, May 31, it took Walters and her team to
Noblesville High School to face the Brownsburg Bulldogs in the Indiana Girls Lacrosse Association’s 1A State Championship Match. The Huskies prevailed with a thrilling 10-9 victory – the culmination of an incredible four-year journey for the Saint Joe senior class that had leaned into Walters’ mantra of “Get one percent better each day.”

“It was so special,” senior captain Shea Anderson told Today’s Catholic. “When I came in freshman year, our whole team was made up of people who had never played lacrosse before. Watching us grow over four years into a 40-person program and ending with a state championship was huge. It just showed all the hard work that everyone put in and all the obstacles we had to face with Indy teams who came in already knowing how to play.”

“It really was a super surreal feeling,” Walters said of winning a state title. “I was just honestly really proud of the team that I got to be a part of all season, ever since it began. We stuck it out since February, and it was that whole combination of everything we went through as a team – just that huge payoff feeling was so amazing.”

Entering the season, the Huskies had captured back-to-back sectional titles, including a trip to semistate last year. After a win on Senior Night, however, Saint Joe suffered two losses and saw two game cancellations due to weather. The Huskies began tournament play without gracing the win column in nearly a month.

“Our last game at home we lost, and afterwards, we said as a team together, ‘This was our last loss,’” Anderson recalled. “It was a driving factor for us to remember last season, remember how we play, and remember what we play for. We play for each other, and we would remind ourselves of that.”

In the state playoffs, Saint Joe then blew by Chesterton, Northridge, and Castle for a berth in the state title match. There they met Brownsburg, a team the Huskies had edged 13-12 during the regular season.

“In that game, we had a little more of a lead, but the state game was so back and forth,” Walters said. “Our mentality was we need to win quarter by quarter, and if we take care of business, we’ll be OK.”

In fact, the championship match was so even that neither team held more than a one-goal lead entering the fourth quarter, with the Bulldogs up 8-7. That’s when Saint Joe rattled off three consecutive goals for a 10-8 lead. A Brownsburg goal in the final minute cut the deficit in half, but the Huskies came up with one last stop to seal the victory.

Junior Maya Matthews anchored Saint Joe’s strong defensive effort with 19 saves on goal. Offensively, the Huskies saw five different players score: Anderson, sophomore Peyton Hopkins, junior Eileen Farrell, junior Mary Maher, and senior Kate O’Shaughnessy, who led the charge with five goals.

“She’s so amazing,” Walters said of O’Shaughnessy. “Every game, she came out ready to go. She’s a very dynamic player. Once she finds a way to score, she won’t stop, and her confidence just grows. It’s exactly what you want to see with an attacker.”

Reflecting on the season, Walters expressed gratitude for the support of the Saint Joe administration – in particular, the school’s principal, John Kennedy, and its athletic director, Stephen Anthony – as well as her own basketball coach at Goshen High School, Shaun Hill, whose coaching style she tried to emulate. “The way he showed up to practice for his players was how I wanted to show up for my team,” Walters said.

While Anderson admitted it was a “different experience” playing for a coach with no lacrosse background, she and her fellow senior captains rallied around their first-year head coach.

“Mostly, we would check in and make sure that everyone is learning the right things,” Anderson said. “We were emphasizing that, ‘Coach, we can always help you with lacrosse IQ and lingo, but the most important thing is the energy and positive impact that we want to leave on the team.’ That’s what we wanted Coach to bring, and she definitely did.”

“It was such a collective effort,” Walters said. “I was leaning on them every day, and they’ve been so supportive – the best senior captains you could have. Each day, they all stuck together and held the rest of the team together. They helped keep us accountable in ways that resonated with them. They were fantastic, honestly – just open to where I was as a head coach.”

Which, for the first time, is a state champion.