Will be one of few high school students in Euro championship in fall

By Chris Villani 

Nipmuc High freshman Iliana Lefort will have the chance to compete in lacrosse at the international level after being named to the Greek national team.

The 15-year-old is one of only three high school athletes named to a team that will also include college players from top-notch programs like Duke and Virginia.

“I was really excited to make the team,” Lefort said. “I had the opportunity to play at the Heritage Cup last May, we were the first U15 team for Greece, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to try out for the national team.”

Lefort played with the Nipmuc junior varsity team last year as an eighth grader and is hoping to be part of the varsity program this spring. She has always loved sports and competition, and joined the youth lacrosse program when she and her friends were eight years old.

“The coaches made it really fun to play, so I kept with it,” Lefort said.

At first, lacrosse was just something fun for Lefort to do with her friends; but eventually she joined a club team and started to take the sport more seriously.

“It was like, ‘Oh, I am actually pretty decent,’’ she said. “I saw this opportunity to try out for the national team and I went for it.”

As a member of the team, Lefort will spend the summer training for the 2026 European Championships in Spain. She and her teammates are slated to travel over the summer, taking on other international squads. Lefort said she can suit up for Greece because of her family lineage.

“My grandfather lives in Greece, and through descent, I am able to be part of the team,” she said. “It’s a smaller country and I feel like it’s different from here because everyone is so connected.”

If Greece qualifies during the European tournament in November, they will have the chance to compete at the world championships in the summer of 2027.

“I think it’s going to be a different experience, especially for our team because we have people of all different ages and different experience,” Lefort said. “But getting to play at that level is going to help me keep improving.”

Lefort, who also plays soccer and competes in indoor track and field, said she is hoping to help her team in any way she can when they convene for training in Pennsylvania this summer. She said playing against older girls with the Nipmuc program has helped prime her for the high-level competition to come.

“It was fun and definitely a little intimidating at first, because there were kids who could be four years older than me,” Lefort said. “At the end of the day, you’re still playing lacrosse. It’s still the same game.”