March 31, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
Well before Caroline Peters roamed the midfield, she tumbled.
Her blond curls whipped around as she flung through the air, working in rhythm with her partner to keep balance while displaying flexibility and ingenuity in their routines. This was the life of an acrobatic gymnast.
“It’s gymnastics but just on the floor and you’re with partners,” she said. “I was on the top so I was flipped around.”
Peters spent most of her childhood on mats in acrobatic studios until she fractured her elbow. That effectively ended her acrobatics career right before middle school and led to her current sport.
The combination of her elbow injury and her family’s move from rural Maryland to a suburb of Washington, D.C., introduced her to lacrosse — a popular sport almost anywhere in the Northeast, especially in Montgomery County and Rockville, Md.
When Peters first started playing lacrosse in sixth grade she couldn’t have imagined the doors the sport would open. In the last four years, lacrosse has given her the opportunity to travel to three countries — with a fourth coming this summer.
In addition, lacrosse has allowed Peters to meet a side of her family she hadn’t connected with — her Irish heritage.
“It has been a great experience,” a beaming Peters said, “definitely meeting so many different people, having so many more connections and just having fun with it.”
This August, the Vanderbilt sophomore will play for the Irish National Team for the third time since 2012 when she heads to the Czech Republic for the 2015 European Championships.
Caroline’s maternal grandfather, Bernie O’Rourke, was born in Ireland and moved to the United States when he was a teenager. Prior to the fall of 2011, Caroline had never been to her grandfather’s native country.
That’s when Caroline’s father, Jeff, started putting things in motion. He did his research and learned Caroline could try out for the Irish National Lacrosse Team when she turned 16. Jeff and Caroline, who has dual citizenship, hopped a flight to Dublin in October 2011 for tryouts.
“My dad was a big driving force into it,” Caroline said. “He is the one who got everything going with all our passports. He was mostly the one who said, `You should really try this. It will be a great experience.’ Very glad or I wouldn’t have had all these experiences.”
Father knows best.
That first tryout was just the beginning. With her dad, grandfather and great aunts and uncles she had never met before in attendance, Caroline was the only high school player to make the team. She was separated by five years to the next youngest player and the oldest player on the team was 31.
“It was really refreshing to be over there and be surrounded by these women who really brought me in,” she said. “There was a big (age) gap. But they all act the same. It was really easy to interact with them.”
The following summer, before her senior year of high school, she led Team Ireland with 19 goals at the 2012 European Championships in Amsterdam as her parents, siblings and grandfather watched with pride.
Watching his granddaughter play lacrosse for Team Ireland has been doubly satisfying for Bernie O’Rourke. He wrestled and played lacrosse at the University of Maryland (the first of his family to attend college) before tearing his shoulder. He now lives in Austin, Texas, but can often be found at lacrosse games at Vanderbilt and around the world.
“He is really into it and so proud that we’re doing any stuff related to Ireland,” Caroline said. “Just that I can represent a country he is so used to and so involved with. He goes over there a lot, too, to see family. It is cool. I know he has expressed that he just loves we are all into it.”
With the Women’s Lacrosse World Cup looming in 2013, Caroline headed back with her father to Dublin in the fall of 2012 for tryouts. Again, Peters made the team and brought back even more, unexpected memories.
With Hurricane Sandy wreaking havoc in the U.S., Caroline and Jeff were stuck in Ireland for a week. Neither seemed to mind. The extra time allowed them to meet, visit and stay with more extended family and explore the beautiful Irish countryside.
“It is just so neat to see how they live, seeing them in person and knowing them,” Caroline said. “Just how welcoming they were — it was so last minute. It was just so nice to be able to go in and out and meet all of them and still be able to travel and see the countryside without being restricted in Dublin. It was really cool. They are amazing and it was nice to actually meet them. Just the experience of being over there is so different from here — but very welcoming. Everyone over there is so welcoming.”
Months before Caroline’s freshman season began at Vanderbilt she played on the sport’s biggest stage. She once again led the team with 14 goals as Team Ireland finished 10th at the Women’s Lacrosse World Cup in Canada.
She’ll be front and center again in August. This past October, she made the quick, four-day trip to Dublin on her own to once again tryout. Not surprisingly she made the team and will venture to the Czech Republic for the European Championships just weeks before classes begin.
“It is really cool to represent a country like that,” she said. “I have never been on a team where they sing the national anthem before every game and they have their main songs from Ireland after every game. Win or lose, everyone comes together and sings in front of all the fans. It has been a new, enjoyable experience that I’ve never been a part of. Even when I’m so mad that we just lost this game it just puts things into perspective.”
For Caroline, forming friendships with her Team Ireland teammates has proved to be just as rewarding as traveling the world and learning about her Irish ancestry.
With the country continually trying to expand the sport, Caroline has been joined on the team by several Americans, along with a bevy of players from England, with family connections in Ireland.
In fact, one of her closest friends on the team is 31-year-old Sarah Walsh Kotkowski. The former Northwestern standout, who calls Annapolis, Md., home, was a player when Caroline first joined the team, served as assistant coach at the 2013 World Cup and will be the head coach for the 2015 European Championships.
“I remember walking into the locker room when I first got there for my first tryouts and I saw a Northwestern backpack and thought, `Oh my God, I’m scared,'” Caroline said laughing. “She has been great. She has been a great mentor. It was cool to learn from someone who has experienced so much at the D-I level.”
More than anything, her experiences with the team have opened her up.
Self-admittedly soft-spoken and reserved, Peters said the enjoyment her Irish teammates display on the lacrosse field has been refreshing. She’s learned the words to the Irish national anthem and belts “Ireland’s Call,” a popular rugby song the team sings after every game.
“I’m more of a quiet person so they could tell when I wasn’t singing,” she said laughing. “It has gotten me more out of my shell than just being on a new team and meeting new people. Being on my own and having to stay with them, we’re together for four weeks. So it has been really cool.”
Along with some of her American teammates, Caroline would like to help grow the sport of lacrosse in Ireland. She said many players in Ireland don’t pick up the sport until late high school or even college. For the sport and country that have provided her with so many opportunities, Caroline wants to give back.
“The experience of even playing for them is amazing,” she said. “That I even have that opportunity because I know a lot of people don’t. Just being able to represent a country is cool. When people bring (playing for Ireland) up, it makes me more excited.”
