Spokane Stealth sets elite standard for regional lacrosse

By Craig Howard Current Contributing Editor

Before she joined the lacrosse roster at Montana State University, Avery Auth was an ambassador of the sport at Central Valley High School.

In 2020, Auth was one of eight players from CV to dot the roster for the Stealth, a team that draws from schools like Ridgeline, University, Freeman, Lewis and Clark, Ferris, Pullman and Medical Lake. Before lacrosse, Auth participated in soccer, basketball and cross country. With the Stealth, she became part of a sport gaining serious momentum across the Inland Northwest.

“I enjoyed the community,” said Auth, who graduated from CV in 2021. “It was really cool to have a whole group of friends who played lacrosse.”

Auth’s brother Spencer was part of the first boys’ lacrosse team at CV while her dad Jim coached her youth club. Auth was a freshman at CV when she joined the Stealth for the 2018 season, a campaign highlighted by a double overtime road win over Gonzaga Prep under the lights.

Auth gives credit to Stealth head coach Holly Whitman for not only building the team into the region’s top program but also generating awareness and respect for girls’ lacrosse. This season, the Stealth rolled to an undefeated conference record and a second straight state playoff appearance.

“She’s the reason we still have a program,” Auth said. “If we hadn’t had a coach who knew what she is doing and cares about the sport like Holly does, I don’t think we’d have a team. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach.”

Whitman came to Spokane in 2002 and quickly discovered a lacrosse desert. She grew up in Albany, New York, surrounded by the sport that has its American cradle on the East Coast. Even though her high school team struggled, Whitman stood out and was good enough to latch on with Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York where she became a two-time NCAA Division 3 All American and was part of a squad that reached the Final Four her senior year.

“When I moved to Spokane, lacrosse was really absent,” Whitman said. “When I’d bring my lacrosse stick to the park and throw the ball to my dog, people didn’t know what it was.”

With a layered background as a player, official and coach, Whitman quickly established herself as a catalyst for girls’ lacrosse in Spokane. She took over the first team at Gonzaga Prep when the original coach left during the middle of the season in 2005.

“I got discouraged at times but we always had fun,” said Whitman. “There’s an element of cool factor to lacrosse.”

After Ferris and Lewis and Clark combined to form a boys’ club team called Stealth in 2016, Whitman was approached about launching a girls’ program. She handed over the Gonzaga Prep reins to another coach and embarked on a new challenge. Her first Stealth squad was small but mighty.

“We’re family-oriented,” Whitman says of the Stealth team culture. “We’re all about sportsmanship and no team drama. Plus, girls’ lacrosse is very different from boys’ lacrosse. Its more of a finesse game. The flow of the game is very different.”

The Stealth play the oldest team sport in North America that has its roots in Native American communities who competed in a game originally known as “stickball.” Lacrosse was first documented in the early 17th century and made its debut as an Olympic sport in 1904.

The Spokane Youth Lacrosse League now features around 300 players, starting at first grade. Whitman is part of the league’s board of directors and points out that a full set of gear is provided for each player who needs one. Scholarships are also available. The league will host a U-14 tournament June 3-4 at Dwight Merkel Sports Complex.

“I never want cost to be a reason that a kid is not playing lacrosse,” Whitman said.

In Washington state, the Puget Sound area is recognized as the hub of youth lacrosse with teams like Mercer Island and Seattle Academy establishing themselves as the premier girls’ high school programs. The Stealth has played Mercer Island in the playoffs the last two years, dropping both games.

“They’re a very smart team,” Whitman said of the defending state champs. “They show our team what lacrosse can be. I thought we played the best defense we’ve ever played against them in our playoff game (May 6).

Stealth assistant coach Francheska Moseanko says the Stealth have gained respect from westside teams over the past several years. The Spokane squad traveled over the mountains in April to take on Auburn and Tahoma and returned home with a victory and a tie.

“I think they know we’re not just a team from the country they can write off,” said Moseanko, a Spokane Valley resident.

In competition against rivals from the Eastern Conference – a group that includes Gonzaga Prep, Kamiakin, Richland, Sandpoint and Big Cat –representing Mt. Spokane and Mead – the Stealth emerged undefeated.

Moseanko can relate to building a program from scratch. After playing high school varsity lacrosse all four years in Orlando, she enrolled at the University of North Florida, a college where competitive lacrosse was absent. Moseanko, whose dad played lacrosse at Rutgers University, took initiative and launched a women’s club team that took on established Division 1 squads like Stetson University and the University of Central Florida.

Last year, Moseanko was an assistant on a Team Washington club that took fifth place at the National Tournament in Maryland, defeating lacrosse-rich programs like Pennsylvania and Upstate New York.

Ridgeline senior Violet Abernathy was among four Falcons on the Stealth roster this year. Gracie Conley from Freeman also represented the Greater Spokane Valley. Abernathy said she’s seen the sport make significant strides since she began playing in fourth grade.

“I just loved the environment of lacrosse from the beginning,” she said. “Mainly, it’s been the coaching and my teammates, just knowing your team is going to be there for you and support you.”

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