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News Article
Off-the-clock: A coach, a mentor and a friend
Denver Water employee strives to build leaders, change lives on and off lacrosse field.
Editor’s note: The Green Mountain High School girls lacrosse team, with Gianna Lombardi as the goalie coach, won the 4A state championship on May 22, 2022. Green Mountain, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 2-seed Thompson Valley in a 16-10 victory at the Peter Barton Stadium at the University of Denver.
Read the Colorado High School Activities Association’s story of the game.
A lot of athletic coaches seem to care about only one thing: winning.
For Gianna Lombardi, a community relations specialist at Denver Water who also is a coach for the Green Mountain High School girls lacrosse team, she cares about so much more.
“Of course, it feels great to win,” Lombardi said. “Though to me, sports — especially high school — should be about building players who are prepped for their future, able to take care of themselves, and equipped to succeed after graduation. Not just winning trophies.”
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This is a personal mission for Lombardi, who has played lacrosse since she was 9 years old and coached lacrosse for the past 10 years. Currently, she’s the lacrosse goalie coach at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood.
“I’m trying to be the woman and role model I wish I would have had in high school,” Lombardi said. “I’m not there just to coach lacrosse. I’m there to coach them to be better humans.”
Lombardi started playing lacrosse when she was in elementary school. When she was a 9-year-old, girls lacrosse teams weren’t common. In her first season, she was the only girl on a boys team, though the next season she found a girls team and played with that lacrosse club team through junior high.
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On a whim at practice one day, she decided to step into the net and try being a goalie.
It was a perfect fit.
“It was so much fun, and I quickly realized I was a natural goalie,” Lombardi said. “I loved it.”
After four years of high school lacrosse at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada, which included college scouting tournaments for recruiters, Lombardi earned a position on the lacrosse team at Regis University. She received a full-ride scholarship to study communications and marketing.
Lombardi quickly learned collegiate sports was a whole new world. While lacrosse is a spring-season sport, she had year-round conditioning and practices, and traveled all over the United States playing lacrosse. She was only offseason during summer breaks.
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“College lacrosse was like having a full-time job while going to school full time,” Lombardi said.
“My typical day began with a lacrosse workout at 5 a.m., before going to six hours of classes, then a three-hour workout,” Lombardi said. “The team would eat dinner together before mandatory study hall until 11 p.m. every night, then do it over the next day.”
While it was challenging, it taught Lombardi the importance of balance and positive attitude.
“I think sports is 60% mental and 40% physical ability, and your mindset can make or break your ability to play your sport,” Lombardi said.
“If you have a bad attitude, it hinders you, your team, your coaches and your schools.”
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For Lombardi, getting a positive mental outlook about lacrosse and herself as a player was an evolutionary process over years.
“I was really hard on myself in high school and would beat myself up over mistakes to the point that I’d cry every practice,” Lombardi said.
“Some people weren’t supportive and would just tell me to stop crying, like that’s going to help me. In college, I got more control over my mental game.”
Now as a coach, if Lombardi sees a player struggling, she thinks of her high school self and takes action.
“I absolutely ask my players what’s going on, because I know how much I wished someone would have done that for me,” Lombardi said. “When things are going on off the field, it’s debilitating. It means you’re not playing as you could or should.”
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Lombardi leads the team wellness and balance programs in addition to being the goalie coach. The wellness program gives players techniques to avoid burnout and keep them mentally fit through yoga and other stress management practices like making affirmations, meditating and journaling.
“It’s really important to have goals for a winning season and to strive to work hard to be a better player, but wellness means you take care of your mind, body and soul,” Lombardi said.
While she loves being a coach, she also loves being a mentor.
“I want to be a role model who is body-positive, compassionate and unashamed to talk about everyday troubles without being embarrassed. It’s OK to have an off day because tomorrow will be better,” Lombardi said.
“I want my players to know I care about them, and that it’s helpful to talk about problems with someone else. It releases that stress and anger instead of building problems up in our own heads.”
For Lombardi, she’s grateful her players can learn from her experiences, and hopes that understanding the pressure in sports makes her a better coach.
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After she graduated from Regis University, Lombardi was chosen to play goalie on a national team for USA Athletes International in a two-week tour promoting lacrosse as they played national teams from Germany, Austria and Slovakia.
It was also the last time Lombardi was able to play competitive lacrosse, as the years of play had taken a toll on her body and she needed a break.
“You have to be a little crazy to be a goalie,” Lombardi said with a laugh. “I mean, you put your body in front of a flying, giant, rubber-cement ball and take bruises on bruises on bruises to stop that ball from going in the net. Sometimes those bruises were like trophies.”
But those bruises sometimes meant injuries, as Lombardi had ankle surgery in high school, two concussions during college, multiple surgeries and two knee operations.
When Lombardi was physically unable to play lacrosse or any contact sports, she started as a volunteer coach at her former high school, Ralston Valley. Coaching became a way for her to remain involved with lacrosse.
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A few years ago, a former teammate and competitor reached out to Lombardi, asking if she would step in as the goalie coach for the girls lacrosse team at Green Mountain High School. She signed on as a full-time coach for the 2020 season. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the season’s cancellation.
“We did get to have the 2021 season, which was awesome because it was the first time we made it to the state playoffs and went to semifinals.”
Like so many people, Lombardi struggled with isolation during the pandemic. For her, coaching was a way to reconnect and not only help people, but also to help herself.
“Our players are hilarious and they’re so much fun to be around,” Lombardi said. “Coming back with a season in 2021 made it wonderful to be around people again.”
“Players would tell me playing on our team saved them, but they didn’t know it saved me too.”
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The pressure and hectic schedule harken back to her college days, because Lombardi is basically working two full-time jobs from January to June.
“I work all day at Denver Water, and then I go straight to either lacrosse practice or a game,” Lombardi said.
As a coach, Lombardi is involved with planning, reviewing game schedules, coordinating practice, meeting with other coaches, watching film, planning transportation, developing team-building exercises and more.
While it’s a huge time commitment, Lombardi has great support both at work and at home, with her family in attendance to cheer the team on at games. Lombardi also has great friendships with her fellow coaches.
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“I’ve played with all the coaches since middle school, high school or college, and it’s great to have them in my corner of life,” Lombardi said.
One of her favorite coaching moments is when she sees all the practice paying off.
“When I see those moments where they execute what they learned in practice perfectly in a game, and everything works the way it’s supposed to, that’s the best,” Lombardi said. “I love watching them get better and better as they grow their skills.”
“Coaching is so rewarding,” Lombardi said. “I’m hopefully making a positive impact, and I love being able to mentally let go of everything to focus on the game. I hope to do this as long as I can.”