If Kendra Schweizer ever has a question about lacrosse, she has plenty of places to turn.
The senior’s head coach at St. Mark’s High is her mother, Lori. And two of the assistant coaches are her sisters, Taryn and Haley.
“Get all three of them in the house talking about strategy … I just go outside and sit, and Kendra just goes to the basement,” Kendra’s father, Paul Schweizer, said with a laugh. “But she has handled it extremely well. She’s confident in her abilities, and they know what she can do. They don’t push her too hard.”
Kendra’s graduation this spring will mark the end of an era at St. Mark’s. For the past 12 years, at least one of the five Schweizer siblings has starred on the Spartans’ athletic teams. All of them have participated in multiple sports, and all of them have been a first-team All-State selection at least once.
“I’ve kind of just been waiting my turn, and now that it’s here, it’s nice,” Kendra said.
It certainly has been nice this spring, as the Spartans’ girls lacrosse team is 14-0 and ranked second statewide by The News Journal. It will be a tall order to knock off No. 1 Cape Henlopen, the nine-time defending DIAA champion. But one Schweizer on the field and three on the sideline may give St. Mark’s a chance.
Paul Schweizer was part of St. Mark’s second graduating class, in 1973. He went on to play football at the University of Delaware and founded what is now ATI Physical Therapy. He sold the business but still works in the Pike Creek office, in addition to heading up the conditioning programs for most of the Spartans’ athletic teams.
Lori made her own athletic mark at Catasauqua High, in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. As a freshman in 1978, she uncorked a 39-foot, 3-inch triple jump that stood as the Pennsylvania Class AA girls state record for 34 years. She also was an All-State field hockey player and earned a scholarship at Penn State, only to see a knee injury derail her career.