Fairbanks High School graduate Nora Boerger is pictured in this photo coaching lacrosse. Boerger was recently named the Swiss Federation women’s coach. (File photo)
Athletics have always been important in Nora Boerger’s life.
The 2009 graduate of Fairbanks High School was a standout athlete in soccer, basketball and softball.
Boerger and her twin sister Emily moved on to Urbana University with the intention of continuing their hoops careers.
Instead, the sport of lacrosse caught their eye and the rest as they say, “is history.”
“Emily and I began playing in college and switched our scholarships from basketball to lacrosse,” said Boerger. “We really came to enjoy it and it was a pretty smooth transition.”
The twins played the sport all through their collegiate years and have also gone into coaching.
Nora was recently named as the head coach of the Swiss Lacrosse Federation women’s team and appointed Emily as her offensive coordinator.
It’s not Boerger’s first venture into coaching. She also serves as the assistant women’s coach at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
The two seasons won’t interfere with each other.
The collegiate campaign at Grand Valley will run through the spring months, while the Swiss season will go through the summer.
“We will play in a couple of tournaments this summer,” said Boerger. “This summer won’t be considered a ‘big ticket’ season.
“We could play anywhere from six to nine games, but nothing yet has been etched in stone.
“However, the World Cup will be played in the summer of 2021,” she said. “We will have more matches at that time.”
Boerger graduated from Urbana with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. She also earned a master’s in unity leadership.
She began her coaching career as the coordinator for performance analysis for women’s lacrosse at The Ohio State University.
That was followed by assistant coaching positions at the University of Findlay and Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina.
Boerger served as defensive coordinator at her previous coaching stops and concentrates her efforts on that side of the field.
“I always played better on defense,” said Boerger of her soccer, basketball and lacrosse days. “As head coach of the Swiss team, I will work with our defense.”
With that said, Boerger felt she needed someone she really trusted to run the offense.
She didn’t have to look far to fill that spot.
“Emily was an attacker in lacrosse, while I always played defense,” said Boerger. “She also was more of the scorer when we played basketball.”
“It’s exciting to coach with Nora,” said Emily, who is an assistant coach at Central Michigan University.
Emily graduated with a degree in exercise science. She previously coached at OSU, Findlay and Merrimack College.
“This is an opportunity to go overseas and do something we both love, which is coaching lacrosse,” she said.