Local lacrosse players get chance to workout with peers from Hong Kong

MANCHESTER – Hannah Hoyt has been training with Kirstin Kochanek to improve her lacrosse skills since before she started high school.

So when Kochanek, who runs 603LaxFit, reached out to ask Hoyt if she wanted to participate a group session, it wasn’t unusual.

What was different was who was attending that session on a Sunday morning in August.

While there were almost two dozen local athletes in attendance, there were also three who were halfway around the world from home.

Rachel Lau, Sally Yue and Dee Chan, who all participate in the sport with the Hong Kong Lacrosse program, had traveled to the United States to spend time working on their skills and reached out to Kochanek to set up the session.

“Early in the summer, Rachel emailed me and said they were coming to Boston and wanted to train with local people,” said Kochanek, who also coaches with New Hampshire Tomahawks. “We’d like the opportunity to train with you, and we want to train with other girls also. I reached out to girls who currently train with me, or have trained with me, who are talented, in my opinion. If they were available, they said yes.”

While they’ve participated with the national team to varying degrees, Lau stated that opportunities to train are limited in Hong Kong and players are always trying to find ways to advance their abilities.

“There are so many great players out there and we want to experience (playing) in America, especially since lacrosse is so popular,” she said. “They’re the top one in the world. I started finding some private training through Instagram, so that’s how we got here. We scroll Instagram a lot because we see a lot of training videos.”

Kochanek’s 603LaxFit account was one of the ones Lau came across and they were able to set up the workout at The Derryfield School. Despite their limited time, Yue felt the experience was important for the trio to get.

“They told me one of the biggest things is how fast the game is,” Yue, who is a goalie, said. “We usually just pass and look and then we pass. It always has a little pause in it, that’s our rhythm. Here, they always know where is the next pass. That’s something you have to experience.

“To understand how fast the game should be played in, it’s tremendously helpful for us. At least we can start training at that speed. It’s not overnight, but we need the experience to know how we should play the game.”

The timing of the session was perfect for Hoyt, who is going into her freshman year at Penn State after graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in the spring.

“I’ve been at Penn State the last six weeks, and the last week, me and my classmates have been talking about the World (Games),” Hoyt said. “When I saw they were coming (from Hong Kong), I was like ‘that’s crazy’ and I was so excited about it. I get to play with them, which is awesome.”