Carly Moody has been playing basketball and soccer for as long as she can remember, but it was in seventh grade when she was introduced to lacrosse playing for the Auburn Youth League. The next season the Dudley resident got the opportunity to play for the Shepherd Hill Regional High School varsity lacrosse program, one year before transferring her skills to Bay Path Regional.

“Playing with the girls from Shepherd Hill, who were much older and experienced than I was definitely was hard get into at first,” she said. “I learned a lot and began starting right away. In my second game I got my first goal – it was very exciting to do.”

Moody noted that Shepherd Hill did not have a junior varsity squad due to low numbers, but she was still going to give it her all at the tryouts to prove she belonged on varsity. Although much younger than the majority of the girls, she was not worried going into the tryouts. 

Having made the team as a seventh grader, she felt great about her accomplishments and took her game seriously. That season she netted 37 goals for the Rams, something that she really didn’t expect to happen that early.

When the season came to a close, Moody had a decision to make – stay with Shepherd Hill or move over to Bay Path; she chose the later due to it being a vocational school. Now, as a freshman she would have to start all over with another team, but would first have to make the Minutemen team.

“I knew some of the girls going into the tryouts and it was similar to Shepherd Hill. I was confident in my skills, but I didn’t know what to expect,” Moody said. “With that one-year with Shepherd Hill under my belt I was very confident, but it was still a challenge.”

Prior to coming to Bay Path she continued to work on her lacrosse skills in any way that she could  during the off-season and she also believes that playing soccer and basketball for the Minutemen helped her to get ready for the spring sport.

While she truly enjoys the competitive play of both soccer and basketball, there is something about the lacrosse competition that is different and keeps her on her toes. Although she hasn’t been playing the game as long as the other two, lacrosse has defiantly become her number one priority when it comes to the three sports.

Having already tallied 37 goals as an eighth grader Moody was looking to eclipse the century mark during her first season with Bay Path and second overall. 

“Carly works extremely hard on and off the field; her stats speak for themselves,” lacrosse coach Rachel Hearnlaye said. “Having already scored 37 with Shepherd Hill as an eighth grader I expect her to hit that 100 mark by the end of this year.”

At the time of this writing, the Minutemen freshman had already tallied 57 goals for her new school giving her 94 on her career. Moody still has another six regular season games left in which to reach the 100-goal plateau. Getting there was one of her goals coming into this season, but she would also like to have the team make the State Tournament; Bay Path is sitting on the cusp with a 6-8 record.

The young lacrosse player knows that she has plenty of time to help Bay Path qualify for the State Tournament in the future, but also knows in order to do so she and the team are going to have to get better. In the off-season she plans on continuing to work on her game as much as she can before the other two sports get under way and take up her time.

“She is always at practice ahead of the scheduled time working on her skills,” the Bay Path Coach said. “As a midfielder she plays both offense as well as defense and continues to focus on her goal scoring as well as her defense.”

Moody believes her speed and shooting skills help to open up the offense while creating space. In doing this she can not only have those scoring opportunities but can help set up her teammates. However, on the defensive side of the ball she would like to get better to help the team and knows over the next three plus years she needs to keep getting better to help the Minutemen get into the Tournament and make a deep playoff run.

As the youngster looks to improve upon her skills, the coach is just hoping that Moody can continue to keep growing as a player.

“She needs to grow and realize that she doesn’t always have to go for the easy shot,” Hearnlaye said. “Recently, against BVT she had 6 goals but she also had a lot of nice assists. She is naturally athletic and has that drive that should benefit her in the future as long as she keeps the growth mindset.”