Bella Dinnel’s lacrosse journey

Junior Bella Dinnel plays with the Omaha Eagles Lacrosse Club (OLC) and has much experience with the sport.

“I started playing in the fall of 2015 with the Omaha Lacrosse Club,” Dinnel said. “The only lacrosse club in Omaha.” The lack of options across Omaha made it slightly difficult for Dinnel to get into the sport.

“As an 11-year-old girl I watched a Disney movie called Invisible Sister where the main character plays lacrosse…after watching that movie I asked my mom if I could play lacrosse.” After this, she and her mom found one of the few lacrosse clubs in Omaha, the OLC. Dinnel played all through elementary and middle school and in 8th grade, she tried out for and played for the Westside Warriors’ lacrosse team.

“As an eighth grader playing for Westside but planning on going to Central, me and my dad talked about starting a lacrosse club at Central,” Dinnel said.

Lacrosse is becoming more and more played in Omaha with their now being an end of the season high school tournament to compete in. This trend has been tracking upwards for a few years now.

Dinnel puts an emphasis on how badly she wants to win and improve individually and as a team. She says that is the goal of the fall season. “Fall is about developing as individuals and as a team, and growing the sport and our program,” Dinnel said. “Expectations for myself are to become a better attacker and teammate.” The main season for lacrosse comes in the spring which culminates with a tournament to crown one high school superior to the rest. “At the team overall level is to improve upon what we did last year in the league, get more dubs, make a deep run in the playoffs and make it all the way to the championship game.” Dinnel said.

She has made many great memories throughout her time playing, whether it be winning games, creating bonds or learning lessons that are applicable to life, but one memory comes over the rest for Dinnel. “In our first season we beat Westside on their senior night on their home field, and they were super upset,” Dinnel said. “We created a little rivalry between the two of us.” The rivalry between her old team and current team is just some of the fuel to the fire Dinnel hopes to use to push the lady Eagles lacrosse team to their first championship this spring.

The purple team has started their season 1-1 with the white team going 0-2 after their first weekend of competition, but like Dinnel said, the fall is for player development and building chemistry. With Dinnel placing an emphasis on becoming a better teammate, the lady eagles are hoping for a great fall season to transition them into an ever-important spring season.