Leo Liautaud: Athlete of the Week

A confident athlete. A leader by example. Top scorer of the team. These are the titles that senior Leo Liautaud’s teammates and coaches define her with, and fittingly, throughout her entire athletic career at Exeter, Liautaud has left a major impact on the school’s athletics, both on and off the field.Liautaud began playing lacrosse in the eighth grade while attending a boarding school in London. “I caught on to it really quickly,” Liautaud said of her first experience with the sport. “I didn't think it was something that I was going to pursue, because when I came to Exeter, I played tennis, and since they’re in the same term, it conflicted. But then I ended up choosing lacrosse because I really liked being on a big team, and I worked really hard at it over breaks.”Liautaud was quick to learn and immediately excelled in the sport. Since she started playing the sport, she has improved steadily and grown into an extraordinary player and a decisive hook for the girl’s varsity lacrosse team.“Leo is a finesse lacrosse player. She has beautiful moves to goal, an excellent first step and amazing stick skills that allow her to get through traffic and deliver,” girls’ varsity lacrosse coach and Liautaud’s advisor Christina Breen said. “She is very skilled at scoring and also is one of our leading assist-getters as well. She really is in control of our entire offense.”Liautaud’s teammates agreed with Breen. Upper Elsa Chinburg commented on Liautaud’s ability to take the team a step closer to victory each game. “She's one of the top scorers on the team, and she's a very smart player,” Chinburg said.Upper Marley Jenkins expanded upon Chinburg’s sentiments and explained that Liautaud is a definitive hook of the team.“Leo is a goal scorer. She leads the attack and helps them set up our plays and stay focused,” she said. “We can always count on Leo to score around three goals per game, which really helps the team stay competitive in close games.”Jenkins continued, outlining Liautaud’s strengths as an offensive player. She emphasized that Liautaud always tries her best and that she maintains her sense of competition throughout every single game. “Leo has a quiet confidence and work ethic that helps her game and helps everyone around her. What I admire most about her is her competitive spirit. She will always be working her hardest and pushing herself when she's tired. She never gives up and has a great competitive edge,” she said.Jenkins also believed that Liautaud’s unique goal-scoring technique was extremely effective against opponents. “On the field, Leo has a very distinctive move that she always scores off of. She will see holes in the other teams' defense that not many players can see,” she said. “She drives to net and when you don't think she is going to, she shoots and usually scores in the top corners of the net. She scores awesome goals and it's so fun to watch her on the field.”Apart from being one of the team’s strongest players, Liautaud serves as one of the captains as well and has performed excellently in that capacity.Breen noted that Liautaud’s charisma and humor are her defining qualities as a good captain. “Leo has proven herself to be an extraordinary leader by reaching out to younger players and by balancing fun with the seriousness of purpose,” she said.Liautaud’s teammates agreed, and all commented on the qualities of Liautaud as the leader of the team.“As a captain, Leo is great on and off the field. She is very organized and good at dealing with all of the technical aspects of being a captain.” Jenkins said. “She is also very passionate about the sport and you can always count on her to be working her hardest during the games and during practice to make herself and everyone else play better.”Chinburg shared a moment in which Liautaud’s skills as a leader clearly showed on the field. “She's a really fun person to be around on and off the field, and she's always really supportive of the team,” Chinburg said. “In our game against Choate on Saturday the team lost its lead in the last quarter. But Leo approached a few girls on the field and gave them individual encouragement.”Liautaud’s experience participating in the sport has been a crucial facet of her time in Exeter, and with this season being her last, she will not only miss playing with the team, but also miss seeing the girls’ lacrosse program progress.“I think it’s a little bit sad for me to leave now, because Coach Breen is really taking control of the lacrosse program. Girls’ lacrosse really hasn’t been a big sport on campus, and I think that since she is actually starting to recruit kids, the team is really going to improve. And right now, our preps are really good, and so eventually lacrosse is going to be a sport at Exeter that a lot of girls go to college for,” Liautaud said.“So that gets me really excited, but it is really sad for me to be leaving, since I know the team is going to be really good, and I won’t get to be a part of that.”Overall, lacrosse has not only been a major part of Liautaud’s athletic career, but also her life at Exeter. “I think that our team has a really positive influence on me. We all work hard academically, and we all have a lot of discipline in both aspects of our lives, academics and sports,” Liautaud said. “Sometimes it’s hard to find yourself in a place like Exeter, so it helps me to have something like lacrosse that defines me as an individual.”