Montgomery sisters are leaders for Rancocas Valley lacrosse
Mekenzie, a senior, has 49 goals this season, including the 200th of her career.
The morning before one of their biggest wins of the season, players on the Rancocas Valley girls' lacrosse team walked into their homerooms and on their desks were small bags with handwritten notes and ribbons attached.
"The notes," senior midfielder Mekenzie Montgomery said, "were personal to each player. We tried to encourage them and let them know how important they were to the team. And the bags just had small things like Gatorade bottles and power bars in them. Three of the seniors - Riley [Cole], Avery [Sweeney], and I - divided up and made one for every player."
That was Thursday morning, and that night the Red Devils upset Olympic Conference power Cherokee, 10-9, on the Chiefs' senior night.
It was a product, the players will tell you, of team unity and motivation and confidence.
Last week, in the midst of what coach Sara Shelley described as a bit of a slump, the Red Devils shifted gears.
"We focused on different ways to bring the team together, to get us hyped up," Shelley said, "and it worked."
The first thing outsiders notice about Montgomery is her gaudy scoring totals. The senior midfielder leads the Red Devils (10-3) with 49 goals, including the 200th of her career, which she scored last week.
But when Shelley thinks about the sustained success her team has found in recent years, she thinks more about what Montgomery, and her entire family, has contributed away from the field. They have the kind of attributes that help build a tradition and the defined culture found in most of the area's elite girls' lacrosse programs.
"The Montgomerys, and their parents, have just been very, very involved in everything," Shelley said. "Everything from hosting team brunches to pasta parties to team scavenger hunts. They've done so much to bring this team together and get everyone involved, players and parents."
The Montgomerys' off-the-field attributes start with strength in numbers. There are four sisters. Mekayla graduated last year. Mekenzie is a senior this season. Mekenna is a sophomore with 10 goals this season, and Mekelsey is an eighth grader, one season away from wearing a Red Devils uniform.
"We've had girls in all different grades, and they're all friends with each other because they all have a Montgomery in their grade," Shelley said.
Each sister says she follows the lead of the sister in front of her.
"Before this year, I always had Mekayla in front of me on every team," Mekenzie said. "So it's different without her this year. But I've taken her place in a lot of what she did off the field. Especially in the little traditions, like now I'm the one driving everyone to school. I take some of my teammates home from school, which is fun. And then on the field, there's just as much of an example to follow."
Mekayla, now playing at Gettysburg College, netted 58 goals last season while helping draw attention away from her younger sisters.
This season, defenses have been squarely focused on Mekenzie, but that hasn't stopped her from turning in the strongest season of her career.
"I'm not scoring goals to better myself. I'm scoring them so our team can win," she said. "That's what we want to do. Win. So sometimes when I'm marked, it's an advantage to our team. It gets other players involved and shows other teams that we don't have just one player. We have a very balanced team."
Last year, Rancocas Valley advanced to the semifinals of a South Jersey Group 4 tournament that was as competitive as any postseason bracket in any South Jersey high school sport.
This year, RV was moved to the Central Group 4 tournament and appears to be the favorite to win a sectional title.
And in a season in which the Red Devils have already proved themselves against some of the top Group 4 teams in South Jersey, a state finals appearance isn't unthinkable.
For Mekenzie, a University of Richmond recruit, reaching that point would be a dream come true and the perfect way to end a four-year stretch that established RV as one of the top programs in South Jersey.
"We just have to keep working hard. Playoffs are around the corner," Mekenzie said. "But we know, as a team, we're all in this together. We have great chemistry on and off the field, and that's going to be a big help."