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Kelsey Brunelle was well-acquainted with Jordan-Elbridge High School long before taking a class there.

In her eighth-grade spring, she received an email from the Eagles’ girls’ lacrosse head coach Molly Byrne. The email said Brunelle would be called up to J-E’s varsity team, alongside her three friends — Marcy Titus, Stella Opanhoske and Briella Gilfus.

Despite Brunelle’s inexperience, Byrne was confident she could immediately contribute.

“We’re hesitant to bring kids up that young,” Byrne said. “We really had to think about if they were ready and would get playing time, because we don’t want to send kids up to varsity who aren’t going to get playing time.”

Brunelle’s passion for lacrosse evolved well before she received the email. At age 4, she started playing for multiple travel squads and starred on her school’s modified team in seventh grade. Brunelle’s journey led her to varsity, where the now-sophomore attack has tallied 119 goals throughout her Jordan-Elbridge career.

While her experiences deepened her commitment to lacrosse, her family’s rich background with the sport initially sparked her interest.

“Both my brothers and my parents played lacrosse, so just watching them made me want to play,” Brunelle said.

In kindergarten, Brunelle and her brother, Wade, played together outside after school every day. Her father, Shaun, occasionally mowed and painted lines in the yard to resemble an actual lacrosse field. As they practiced in the yard, Brunelle and Wade often used a radar gun to measure their shot speeds.

Brunelle also developed skills training with her uncle Fietta, a member of Syracuse’s 1995 title-winning men’s lacrosse team.

Her journey playing competitive lacrosse began in early elementary school, when she started on her mother’s team in the Upstate Lacrosse Association. In fifth grade, she joined Monster Elite Lacrosse, a Rochester-based lacrosse club, making two-hour trips three times a week to and from Syracuse for practices. However, the demanding schedule became unsustainable.

Kelsey Brunelle earned a spot on Jordan-Elbridge’s varsity team as an eighth grader. Courtesy of Amy Brunelle

“Kelsey pretty much just got burnt out due to the travel,” Shaun said. “She wanted to play with her friends again outside of the rec team.”

Yet she remained determined to chase her dreams of playing varsity lacrosse. Brunelle joined the Orange Crush Lacrosse recreation league, spearheaded by former Syracuse men’s lacrosse assistant coach Steve Scaramuzzino, where she honed her skills and forged lasting relationships.

Brunelle remembers running through hotel hallways and knocking on doors with her teammates, which boosted her confidence that showed on the field, Shaun said.

Because Orange Crush didn’t hold practices, Brunelle felt many aspects of her game still needed development. So, her parents arranged training sessions with former SU attack and All-American Dylan Donahue. Brunelle and Donahue typically trained for a few hours each Sunday to enhance her skills.

Jordan-Elbridge doesn’t have a traditional junior varsity lacrosse team, as there aren’t enough players to field a team, Byrne says. But as a seventh grader, Brunelle had the opportunity to play on a modified squad as a precursor to varsity, which was also coached by Byrne.

Bringing Brunelle and her friends up to varsity in eighth grade was difficult, Byrne said, but her decision proved productive. Alongside Titus, Opanhoske and Gilfus, Brunelle became a day-one starter for Jordan-Elbridge. Though the team went 4-13 in 2023, she played a vital role in keeping games competitive, averaging a team-high 3.2 points per game. In Brunelle’s eighth-grade campaign, she tallied 14 points over her first three games and notched six in her first-ever start.

“She didn’t back down from the varsity competition,” Byrne said. “I think her first game set the tone for how her career would go.”

While her goal tally has impressed, Byrne claims Brunelle’s impact goes beyond the stat sheet. She says the sophomore “creates opportunities for others,” making hustle plays to shift the game’s momentum.

On April 15 against Wayne High School, Brunelle recorded five goals and six assists en route to a convincing 19-9 victory. Though Byrne acknowledged her scoring prowess, she mentioned how she consistently plays an all-around game, feeding teammates on cuts, drawing defenders and causing key turnovers.

But lacrosse isn’t Brunelle’s only sport. She’s a three-sport athlete at Jordan-Elbridge, playing soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter. As Byrne watches her compete in other sports, the Eagles’ head coach sees traits that carry into lacrosse season.

“She’s very coachable and does whatever a coach asks her to do,” Byrne said. “I don’t know if soccer goalie would have been her first choice, but that’s where they needed her and she stepped right up into that role.”

After notching her long-awaited 100th career goal in a 14-11 win over Chittenango on April 10, Brunelle hopes to continue impacting Jordan-Elbridge in her final two seasons with the program, aspiring to eventually play collegiate lacrosse.

But she’s not too worried about the future. With hopes to make a strong run into sectionals, Brunelle’s eyes are set on the present, where she never would’ve been if it weren’t for the email Byrne sent her in eighth grade.

Published on April 30, 2025 at 10:57 pm
sabrod@syr.edu