GIRLS LACROSSE: Minner’s a WINNER

By John D’Onofrio<br><a href="mailto:donofrioj@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail John</a>

LOCKPORT May 09, 2008 10:14 pm

— If you like all-time records, imagine setting a new one every girls varsity lacrosse game you compete in.
But that’s exactly the case with Lockport High School junior lacrosse star Kayla Minner, who breaks her all-time career scoring record at LHS every time she finds the net.
And that’s often for Division 1’s leading goal scorer this year with 40 goals and 20 assists in just 12 games for head coach Kristin Decker’s Lady Lions.
“Kayla’s not big, but she utilizes her smaller size to her advantage,” Decker said.
“She can get underneath a defender because of her size, she can run past a defender because of her speed and she has tremendous accuracy on her shots.”
Kayla, 17 (she celebrated her birthday this week), the daughter of Jeff and Amy Minner, is the top player in a three -year-old LHS program inherited this spring by first-year head coach Decker. Despite a 2-7 record so far this season, the program has come a long way in just over 1,000 days.
And so has Minner, excelling both in the classroom and out, according to her Honors U.S. History Class teacher, veteran LHS girls tennis coach John Beatty, the lacrosse team’s time keeper at home games.
“Kayla’s exactly what you look for in a scholar-athlete. She excels in both the classroom and out in the field,” Beatty said.
“She’s also a nice kid with a good personality — very polite. It’s not about ‘me, me, me’ with her.”
Kayla and others attribute a lot of her improvement in lacrosse to playing for the Buffalo Wings lacrosse club last summer
“You really can see how much she improved and how much better she is than a lot of other players,” Beatty said.
“She really stands out. She’s an athlete, as opposed to someone just playing a sport.”
Decker described Minner, a two-year captain, as, “someone who gives it her all, all of the time.
“There’s been games where she gets bowled over or gets hit in the head, but she just keeps going,” Decker said.
Lockport Athletics Director Patrick Burke said Minner was inducted this week into the National Honor Society.
“The kids just love her. She’s just an easy-going, fun person to be around and she comes form a nice family,” Burke said.
Kayla’s the fourth of six children in a happy Minner household.
“She’s the funny one,” her mom said. “She brings a lot of humor. I think she gets it from her uncle Ted.”
Kayla, who boasts a 3.6 average, said she’s leaning toward an career in education after high school and possibly coaching.
She has one brother and four sisters, James (23), Abby (21, Mrs. Kory Rosenberg), Aleah (19), Karissa (15) and Jenna (12); and a niece, Ava (eight months). She is the grand daughter of Pat and Chuck Dominessy and Barb and Leo Minner.

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