Two Barron Collier girls lacrosse players compete at Heritage Cup

Zoe Bucher has come a long way in her lacrosse career. From just throwing the ball with friends, to joining the Barron Collier High School girls lacrosse team, to now. She’s back home after playing for Peru at the Heritage Cup.

“Three years ago, you’d tell me I’d be on a Peruvian national team, I’d say you’re out of your mind,” Bucher said.

Zoe brought her stick to Pennsylvania to compete against teams from all over the world with players from different levels of lacrosse.

“I was probably one of the youngest people there and all the other people we were playing with they had families,” Bucher explained. “They had kids and stuff. And they were either in D-1 or graduated D-1 or going D-1. And it was really unique playing with all the different levels of lacrosse.”

What made the experience more enjoyable for Zoe is that she wasn’t alone. One of her Barron Collier teammates, Nicole Kuhl, was also there playing for the Israeli team. The two teammates even had to guard one another when their teams matched up.

Bucher said, “it was scary. It was terrifying. I always watch her and since I’m her teammate it’s different cause I always watch her defend people. When she defends me, I’m like okay. I got a little bit scared. But all in all it was so much fun because it made my nerves put at ease a little bit cause I knew somebody on the other team.”

“These two girls are exceptional,” Barron Collier girls lacrosse head coach Bob Musitano said. “They really are and it’s great to see them get this opportunity. They get international play that may lead to the Olympics for them so it’s pretty special.”

Zoe is already focused on how she can take playing against top talent and build on it.

“I’m going to push myself more to be how they are because it’ll help me on the field here,” Bucher said. “Like at Barron we have tough competition during the season and stuff. And I want to push myself to be better than our competition and push our teammates too.”