Goalkeeper plays on boys team

Karli Pearl grew up playing sports with her older brothers, so it was only natural for her to want to play against the guys in organized sports.

That, in a nutshell, is how Pearl wound up as a goalkeeper on Mooresville High’s boys lacrosse team.

For the past two seasons, the 5-foot-2 senior has been the Blue Devils’ backup goalkeeper, going up against players who are bigger, faster and stronger – and male.

“I don’t want to play anything else,” Pearl said. “I don’t want to play girls lacrosse now that I’ve played on a guys’ team. Playing against the guys is all I know; I’d probably be very annoyed playing on a girls team.”

Pearl actually wanted to begin playing lacrosse as a youth – an idea shot down by her mother, Joann Pearl. Instead, Karli Pearl took up ice hockey, playing goalie for a youth team.

“I was like 10 or 11, but my mom wouldn’t let me because she thought guys lacrosse was it – she didn’t know there was girls lacrosse,” Karli Pearl said. “Eventually, my mom finally let me play a sport of some sort of aggression.”

Once she got to Mooresville High, however, Pearl began thinking more and more about giving lacrosse a try.

Her brother, Kyle Pearl, was one of the founding members of the Blue Devils’ team, which began playing in 2009. However, Mooresville High had only fielded a girls lacrosse team one year – the same year the boys team began playing.

“So when I wasn’t able to play hockey any more, I decided to try lacrosse,” Pearl said. “I had to get it approved by the (athletics) directors, because there’s not a girls team here.

“My mom’s always been concerned, but ever since I suited up and played hockey against the guys, she didn’t have as much of a worry. Her main worry was that I wasn’t going to be treated as part of the team, because I have to hold my own, and guys are guys.”

Pearl admits she did receive some resistance from several players when she first tried out for the Blue Devils’ lacrosse team.

“Most of the guys didn’t have a problem with it, because they knew who my brother was,” Pearl said. “Some did have some trepidation about it – some wanted to win and didn’t want to share the team with a girl; some just wanted to hang with their ‘lax bros.’

“I grew up with guys, so that’s all I’ve ever known. I laugh at their jokes, I know how their humor is, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be because a lot of people were on my side.”

However, Pearl said that adjusting from playing in the goal in ice hockey to fronting the goal in lacrosse was bigger than she expected.

“I remember my first practice – I was pretty scared,” Pearl said. “Playing goalie in lacrosse is different than in hockey. There’s a different way of doing things, different fundamentals, different gear.

“The biggest thing was the protection – in hockey, you’re pretty padded up; in lacrosse, all you have is the chest protector, gloves, elbow pads and the helmet. The pain was hard to get used to, but once I got hit a couple times, I got used to it.”

During her two years, Pearl – who primarily played the second half of Mooresville’s games – accounted for more than 100 saves, a few of which “got the team fired up,” said Blue Devils coach Kameron Prince.

“She’s out there running with the guys every day,” Prince said. “I’ve seen her come out and stuff a kid on the crease before, which gets the whole sideline fired up. I’m going to hate losing her. She’s always been a big motivator.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Goalkeeper plays on boys team."