Photographs courtesy McCall family
Saints Peter & Paul senior will head to Temple U. on a scholarship
Photographs courtesy McCall family
Avery McCall possesses all the skills to be an elite lacrosse player—if she is not one already. McCall, a Saints Peter and Paul High School senior, has a great shot, distributes the ball well, and uses her size (5-foot-10) to her advantage. She has above-average quickness, and outstanding leadership skills.
Those things got the three-sport athlete, who carries a 4.0 weighted grade-point average, an athletic scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. Months before college coaches started recruiting her in September of last year, McCall, a midfielder, realized she needed to work on her game. Improving the mental side was crucial.
She put too much of a burden on herself leading up to a game and feeling overwhelmed at times when the action began. This went through her head: McCall had to impress fans, coaches, and opposing players with great games. To her, that meant scoring a lot of goals.
“I was thinking too much,” McCall explains. “The pressure would build up. I would break down (mentally). I also compared myself to others. Then, I learned to stop doing all that. I went into the games without thinking too much. It worked.”
It was just that simple, but it took nearly a year to get there. McCall also made it a priority to improve her strength, quickness, and shot among other things, especially during the school year. She would get up at 4 a.m., go to the gym, and work out for an hour and half, then practice her accurate shot for 30 minutes. “That was all before the school day started,” the Easton resident says.
Saints Peter and Paul Girls Lacrosse Coach Abby Burke adds: “It takes a completely different level of dedication and love for the sport to do that.”
Working on both mental and physical skills took her game to another level. It showed on the field big time in the spring for the Sabres. McCall led the team in goals (35) and assists (20) to become the focal point of the offense. She earned Eastern Shore Interscholastic Athletic Conference (ESIAC) All-League honors for the second consecutive year.
McCall had some fantastic games in 2025. She scored seven goals in a 13-7 victory over visiting Salisbury School and totaled four goals in a 12-9 loss to Baltimore’s St. Timothy’s School. The Sabres needed a big year from McCall after two key offensive players departed the program following the 2024 season. Morgan Quade (playing at Loyola Maryland University) graduated, and Caroline Ewing transferred to St. Mary’s High in Annapolis.
The 17-year-old McCall, who played for the highly-respected United Maryland Lacrosse Club (four years), filled the void quite nicely. “I had to really step it up,” McCall says. “I have never been the most confident player going to the goal. So, I worked on my shot and dodging a lot.”
McCall impressed her teammates and Burke with the season she put together. Burke respects McCall, also a standout soccer player, for leadership qualities as much as her on-the-field production. McCall served as co-captain of the soccer team as a sophomore and the basketball team as well as the lacrosse squad as a junior.
“She is a very natural leader on the field during games and practices,” Burke says. “Her sense of knowing where she should be and where the ball must go is just amazing. It shows the younger players what they should be doing. Everyone on the team really looks up to her.”
McCall was just as important to her team’s success in basketball. She averaged 15.8 points and 11.6 rebounds per game last winter while being named the ESIAC’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Her versatility stood out. McCall played point guard along with center.
“She will take up lacrosse in college,” Sabres’ Girls Basketball Coach Katie Murphy says. “If she wasn’t, she would be playing basketball in college. She is that good of a player. There isn’t any team we have played who hasn’t asked, ‘Where is she going to play basketball in college?’ Some coaches say she should play both in college.”
