Katie Fitzgerald ’25 will return to Hong Kong this August to represent Ireland on the international lacrosse stage for the second year in a row. Her path to wearing the Irish jersey started not on the field, but in the front seat of a car.
The discovery came in the summer of 2023, during a lacrosse tournament in New Jersey.
“I was just scrolling on my phone and I saw that Ireland has a national lacrosse team, and I thought that was kind of cool,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald, whose father is from Limerick, Ireland, already had dual citizenship. But things didn’t go smoothly at first.
“Between July and September of 2023, I fractured my spine. So I couldn’t play lacrosse the rest of the summer and I couldn’t go to the original tryout,” Fitzgerald said.
Determined, she submitted game film instead and made it to the next stage, a call up camp in Dublin that October.
“By that time, I was able to play again […] and then a month later I got the email saying that I made the team,” Fitzgerald said.
The training process of the Irish national team wasn’t typical.
“There was a limited amount of times that we’d be able to play together,” Fitzgerald said.
In place of regular practices, the team held monthly zoom calls, shared fitness packets and ran their own training sessions independently.
“There’s only a 15 meter line, which made the critical scoring area a lot bigger, which I found a lot more difficult as a defender,” Fitzgerald said. “[Also,] in international play, there’s one goalie, three defenders, three midfielders, and three attackers. So there’s 10 people on the field.”
When she finally arrived in Hong Kong in August 2024, she didn’t know many of her teammates. But that changed fast.
“We were living with each other. So we got really close in those five days, and the practices helped us work on plays and the style of play we would use,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald went into the tournament with a clear mindset.
“My personal goals for the tournament were really just to have fun with it, I didn’t really wanna put that much pressure on myself,” Fitzgerald said.
Still, she and the team performed well.
“Before playing in the world championships in 2024, Ireland was ranked number 19, and after that we got 10th place,” Fitzgerald said.
Lacrosse has shaped Fitzgerald in more ways than one.
“It’s made me a very competitive person. I love a good fight and when everyone gets ramped up and excited, it’s just really fun,” she said.
Beyond the sport itself, the people she’s met stand out most.
“I’ve made so many different friends now playing for the Ireland team. I’ve made friends who live near us, some friends who were already halfway through college, and then other people who live in Ireland or England,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald’s global lacrosse experience has shown her just how far the sport can take her.
“It really just helped bond me with everyone I met,” Fitzgerald said, “and overall it introduced me to so many cool people I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life.”
