Courtney Renahan: Making it at Maryland

By Bethany Stewart

     Senior Courtney Renahan has dreamed of attending the University of Maryland College Park for almost her entire life, and soon she will get to live out her dream. During her Freshman year at Glenelg High School, she committed to Maryland with a full ride to play lacrosse during her time at the university. While at Maryland, she plans on majoring in special education. She found this passion through the forever friends program at Glenelg. She is also involved in other organizations throughout the school, including leadership club, which she was hand-picked to be a part of.

     Her passion for lacrosse came in 4th grade when she first started playing. She says “I am very lucky to have had the same coach throughout my entire lacrosse career. Coach Alex Pagnotta has been my coach for over seven years and I could not have asked for anyone better.” Renahan explains that he helped her to develop as a person and play through her many years under his wing. She started her lacrosse career at Cobras, a Western Howard County organization. She then moved over to the organization known as Heros, and has been playing there for seven years. She originally moved around to many positions, but found her home at mid-field.

     At Glenelg, Renahan played lacrosse all four years. She also participated in indoor-track for one year, played soccer for all four years, and played basketball for two years as well. Last year, Renahan won player of the year for lacrosse, and was the captain of the team at that time. She is also the captain this year for both soccer and lacrosse. These leadership roles allowed her to prepare for college and beyond by giving her experience with leading a group of people to success. She raved about her experiences at Glenelg for both athletics and academics. She claims that “Glenelg has been a great experience where I made numerous friends and had great teachers who prepared me for my future. Everyone I have become close to have greatly impacted my life.” Renahan is ready to go to the college she had grown up rooting for.

     After college, Renahan wishes to move to Waco,Texas, which she finds incredibly interesting, and get a job, either in special educations or as a Division I college coach. She knows the difficulties of becoming a college coach, but hopes that one day she will be able to achieve her goal. Even if this does not happen, she knows that she will love working in special education, and could not be happier with the experiences from forever friends during her time at Glenelg.

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