Live, Laugh, Love (and Lacrosse!)
by Jill Cousins
To say that Alexis Newman has a bit of an obsession with the sport of lacrosse is an understatement. In fact, everyone in her family jokes that she does lacrosse…and then lives her life in her free time.
These days, Alexis doesn’t have much free time, but she’s managing just fine. Alexis is Seminole High School’s girls’ lacrosse head coach, and she’s a wife and a mom. She is also the girls’ director for Bats Lacrosse Club, a developmental youth program in Sanford, and the founder and director of Flood Lacrosse, a recreational league for girls and women in Central Florida. Alexis, who played lacrosse at Seminole High and Emerson College in Boston, also competes locally, nationally, and internationally.
An Offer She Couldn’t Refuse
This summer, Alexis added to her impressive lacrosse resume when she coached the first women’s teams to represent the United States at the United World Games (UWG), a youth sporting event held in Austria. Alexis was asked to coach the team by Franziskus “Fifi” Bertl, founder and president of the UWG, which began its Olympic-style competitions in 2005. Alexis had met Fifi in the summer of 2022, when she played on a USA All-Stars team in a European tournament that he organized.
Lacrosse Sixes – a compact version of traditional lacrosse with six players per team instead of the traditional 12 – made its debut at the 2025 United World Games. Alexis coached two Under-21 teams, along with Dr. Meghan Braun, a club lacrosse director and coach in Jacksonville.
“It was so exciting and such an honor, obviously, to be the first to do this,” says Alexis, 27, who lives in Sanford with husband Spencer and son Christian. “This is lacrosse’s inaugural year in the Games, so it’s really groundbreaking. I knew right away that I was going to do it.”
The U-21 teams were primarily made up of current Florida high school and college athletes, and the players included several faces that are very familiar to Alexis. Four are her Seminole High players: recent graduate Olivia Sprinkle and returning players Baylin Burdette, Reagan Sprinkle, and Delaina Diaz. The UWG roster also included Olivia and Reagan’s little sister, 13-year-old Amelia Sprinkle, a Sanford Middle School student who was the youngest player on the team.
The group’s 10-day European trip began on June 16, when the team flew to Switzerland. After spending a few days sightseeing in Zurich, Germany, and Liechtenstein, the team made its way to Austria for the United World Games on June 20-22.
For the Love of the Game
Alexis had high hopes for her teams going into the tournament, but both – USA All-Stars White team and USA All-Stars Blue team – were surprised by three impressive teams from England. England’s teams took the top three places in the nine-team tournament, while USA’s White team was fourth and Blue finished seventh.
“Honestly, we were going for the gold,” says Alexis. “I expected our players to have a little bit of an edge because they’ve had the opportunity to play for longer and have had more exposure to the game than folks in Europe have. American lacrosse is like the gold standard.”
The girls headed home after the United World Games, but Alexis continued her European adventures by competing for a USA All-Stars team in the Lisboa Cup, a lacrosse tournament in Portugal, and then spent some additional time touring the country.
Alexis has been playing lacrosse since she was a third grader at Woodlands Elementary School. A classmate, whose father was a lacrosse coach, convinced a reluctant Alexis to go to tryouts one day. To her surprise, Alexis fell in love with the sport, and the rest – as they say – is history.
“I love the game,” says Alexis. “It’s given so much to me in my lifetime, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to pour that into others. I know how transformative an experience it can be – in all aspects of life.”