By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
Christine Stetson is as dedicated and competitive as they get.
As Olivia Smith puts it, she brings a level of intensity that brings the best out of her players at West Deptford High.
“She’s a great coach. She’s a really great motivator and pushes us to be our best,” said Smith, a senior captain on the lacrosse team. “She wants to build a bond with us and pushes us to be the best that we can be, and I think she does a great job at it.
“She’s intense, that’s for sure. I like intensity as a player, I like being pushed and motivated. We work hard in practice. She’s very big on competition and always putting us against each other and competing for our spots. You know when you’re on the field that you deserve to be on the field, and she makes that very aware to you.”
A 2005 West Deptford graduate, Stetson was a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and track and is now in her third season as the head coach of the girls lacrosse team.
She’s also an assistant varsity coach for the girls soccer team and was the varsity assistant for nine seasons under current Haddon Township coach Mark Petito from 2015 to 2024.
West Deptford didn’t implement a lacrosse program until her senior year of high school, so she never had the opportunity to play the sport herself, however, she’s learned it over the past several years as it draws similarities to both soccer and basketball.
“We didn’t get lacrosse at West Deptford until I was a senior, and I was a javelin thrower (in track & field),” said Stetson, who’s twin sister, Courtney, is the head field hockey coach for the Eagles. “I was a soccer coach and a basketball coach, and picked it up in the last (few) years. I got asked to coach in 2015 because I coached basketball and soccer, and lacrosse is like a combination of those two games. I have learned a lot as the coach.”
“She’s great, I love working with her,” said Taylor Sweeney, who’s in her third year as an assistant under Stetson. “She’s the best, and the reason why I keep coming out and doing this every year.”
What’s even more admirable is that in addition to coaching three sports at West Deptford, Stetson is a physical education and health teacher at Paulsboro High — a longtime Colonial Conference rival of the Eagles.
“Ms. Stetson is extremely dedicated to the Paulsboro and West Deptford communities,” West Deptford athletic director Keith Williams said. “She works extremely hard to ensure she is giving her absolute best to her teaching and coaching careers, while balancing the Paulsboro/West Deptford rivalry.”
It may be challenging to teach out of district and not be in the building during the day, but Stetson, also known as “Stets” by both her students and players, has embraced it. Her players make the unique situation easier.
“It’s hard to teach out of district,” she said. “I do have good girls who give me everything that they can, and when we get to practice at whatever the time is — three o’clock, one o’clock, doesn’t matter — they are locked in. I love how all the girls work hard. Every single day at practice they show up and give me everything that they can every time.”
In two full seasons under Stetson, the lacrosse team has qualified for the South Jersey Group 1 playoffs twice, with a 12-3 first-round victory over Delaware Valley in her first season back in 2023. She’s posted a 21-32 record overall, including 12-8 in her first season.
“It means a lot to be able to coach (at West Deptford),” she said. “I love coaching the sport(s), it’s really fun.”
WHAT’S NEXT: West Deptford travels to Maple Shade on Monday at 3:45 p.m.
