Seymour senior Emma-Rose Nault. (Photo via John Alvarez)
BY DAVE LINK
Seymour High School 2025 graduate Emma-Rose Nault has played lacrosse most of her life.
Almost year round.
Since she was a first-grader.
Nault moved to Seymour four years ago from Kennesaw, Ga., and this May helped the Seymour High School lacrosse team reach the state championship match against Franklin’s Page High for the second straight year before losing it.
After signing scholarship papers to play lacrosse for Tusculum, Nault made a difficult decision last week.
“I decided that I’m not going to play in college, and I want to go to work,” Nault said Monday, July 28.
Nault said she wants to be an MRI or X-ray technician and is ready to get on the fast track in those programs. She plans to enroll at Walters State or South College for this fall semester.
“It was definitely a big decision for me to make, but I love lacrosse and everything about it, just everything it gave me,” said Nault, the 5Star Preps Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year. “After almost 13 years playing, I’m forever grateful for it, but I just think I got burnt out playing for so long, like year around almost basically with club and everything, so I just decided, ‘You know what? It’s time for a new chapter.’”
Nault grew up in Georgia and said lacrosse in that area was highly popular at the time.
She tried other sports while in elementary school but liked none better than lacrosse, once introduced to the sport.
“(Lacrosse) wasn’t too big, but it was a lot larger than Tennessee is now even,” Nault said. “I had a couple of friends from my elementary school, their dads were actually the lacrosse coaches, and we just grew up playing together.
“That was really why I started playing, just a couple of friends who wanted to start something. I played a couple of sports growing up, but nothing stuck like lacrosse did.”
Nault stuck with lacrosse through middle school into high school, joining the Seymour girls’ lacrosse team as a freshman in 2022 and becoming a key player for head coach Patrick Doyle on a team already a state title contender.
And that’s what the Lady Eagles were again this year – state contenders.
Although they fell short of the title again, the Lady Eagles were on the brink.
“It’s not like we couldn’t hang with (Page) or anything like that,” Nault said. “It just came down to that last little bit, but I’m still proud of us for making it.”
How close was the May 17 title match against Page?
It was tied 3-3 after one period.
Page had a 9-7 halftime lead.
Seymour cut the deficit to one (11-10) after three periods.
And both teams scored twice in the fourth period. Game over. Page won, 13-12.
“I don’t think we tied it up after the second half,” Nault said. “It was mostly back-and-forth, back-and-forth, until it got to like a minute and a half left, because it reminded us of the two-minute drill in lacrosse where you just have to play keep–away.
“And that’s basically what Page pulled on us, was just playing keep–away, but it was definitely a learning opportunity, and I don’t regret anything about that game.”
Nault was one of the area’s top attackers, finishing with 42 goals and 35 assists while earning All-Region and All-State honors. She had three points (two goals, one assist) in the state championship game.
“I took the draw mostly (this season),” she said, “but I stayed on attack and my main job this year especially was just to assist and kind of help the other girls out, which I love doing that.
“I’d prefer that over scoring any day, especially (assisting) girls who had never had a goal or anything, being able to help them and seeing them get so excited, that was probably the most rewarding thing about the sport.”
This summer, Nault is taking a bit of a breather before starting a full fall schedule, working and going to school.
“I played lacrosse a little bit for fun,” Nault said, “but mostly I’m just working out, working, and just kind of enjoying taking a break because this is the first time I’ve actually been able to take a break.
“I’ve been playing club since the sixth grade. We’ve been traveling. We’ve traveled all over the East Coast for it. It’s the first time I’ve actually been at home (for summer).”