Now, Jamie Kubach is a lacrosse player.
It didn’t start out that way.
In fact, when her older sister Kelly was starring in the sport, Kubach went to games to support her sister, not because she was a fan of the game.
“I didn’t even like watching it and I didn’t like playing it,” said Kubach, a senior at Penn Charter High School. “I really didn’t like it until I started playing in high school. I really liked playing at Penn Charter. I learned a lot and I liked playing with the team, and for the coaches. That’s when I started to like it.”
Now, she loves it.
Kubach is a three-sport star for the Quakers, also playing on the soccer and basketball teams, and while she’s good at all her sports, she now considered herself a lacrosse player first, and she’s now preparing for the spring season with her team.
So far, it’s been a pretty good year.
The Bustleton native led the Quakers to a strong season in soccer and helped Penn Charter finish atop the Inter-Ac during basketball season.
But now, after a long layoff from lacrosse since the Quakers didn’t have a season last year, she’s ready to take over as the starting goalie and hopefully bring home another championship to Penn Charter.
“I think we should be really good this year and I’m hoping we get a good season in, every other season was short because of COVID,” Kubach said. “We have a pretty good team. We have great coaches and they always get us ready. I’ve been happy we were able to have seasons in all three sports, and I really hope we have a good season in lacrosse.”
Kubach is ready to do her part.
Prior to this year, she was the backup on the Quakers, playing behind Hayley Hunt, who is now playing for Stony Brook.
But this wasn’t a heated competition to start for Penn Charter. In fact, it was anything but. Both players pushed each other to get better, and Kubach credits her former teammate with teaching her a lot about the position.
“She helped me a lot, she was very good,” Kubach said of Hunt. “I learned a lot from her. She was one of the top goalies, so she helped me a lot. She also helped me love the sport and made me work on it. It was her, the rest of the girls and the atmosphere.”
But now Hunt is gone. And she left the position in good hands.
The Inter-Ac has great lacrosse, and this year Penn Charter might be the best of the lot. The Quakers have a goalie who is ready.
“I love playing (goalie) because you get to have a big impact on the game,” said Hunt, who is a defender in soccer and a forward in basketball. “And when you make a save, you can have a big save and it can help the team. It’s a tough position, I think it’s one of the toughest ones to play, but I love it. I love playing it now.”
So much so that she’s going to continue playing the position beyond high school.
Next year, Kubach is going to play goalie at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. It wasn’t a tough choice once she found the team was interested in bringing her in.
“I really like the coach a lot and the atmosphere, it was really nice, everything about the school,” said Kubach, who plans on majoring in business or finance. “All the girls seem really cool. I just felt like it would be a really good fit for me.
“I like business, I’m pretty good with numbers and math. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I really like sports so maybe I’ll look into sports management when I get there.”
While Kubach is bringing a lot of talent to Fairleigh Dickinson, she definitely got noticed in a unique way.
Like all seniors this year, she didn’t have any film from last year and she has yet to compete in her senior campaign. She did have club lacrosse, playing for Headstrong, but she also got help from her coach, who recorded some practices so players could showcase their skills.
Kubach is excited about taking her game to the next level, but she still has a lot she wants to accomplish in high school.
“I just want to have a good season and have fun,” Kubach said. “I want to do well in lacrosse, but I also want to do well in school. I want to finish with a 3.5 (grade point average) and do the things you do senior year. I hope we’re able to have it be more normal.
“It’s been hard, we still aren’t back completely. I go one week and then do a week virtually, so there are a lot of people I haven’t seen. Sports has been good for seeing people, but I hope we can go back to school, all of us together.”
She still has a little more than three months remaining, so there’s still time to enjoy the school she loves so much.
“Penn Charter is great, I love it,” Kubach said. “It’s a great school, the students are all cool, the teachers are great, and it’s a great academic school. I really like it.”
