Megan Smith Fizzano ’87 was Strath Haven’s first All- American Athlete ’87 and Penn State’s Female Athlete of the Year ’91. She has also won an NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse title.
Fizzano is now one of the girls’ lacrosse coaches at Strath Haven High School.
“I played field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse at Strath Haven,” she said. “I have a big connection to Strath Haven, and my dad was the girls’ basketball coach there that won the state championship. He was considered, at least around these parts, the dean of girls’ basketball.”
She initially attended Garnet Valley but wanted to play sports at Strath Haven because Garnet Valley wasn’t really in a league at the time. The only problem was that it was expensive because she lived out of the area, and her father refused to pay. Luckily for her, the school had just opened.
“I desperately wanted to go to Nether Providence…When Strath Haven merged, they let teachers and employees bring their kids over for free. That’s the reason I got to go to Strath Haven, but I wouldn’t have gone there, had that not been the case. So, I did come there to play sports because of the fact that it was in the Central League, and there was a lot more exposure for girls and sports,” she said.
As an athlete, she wanted to be seen by scouts and coaches. Strath Haven was the place to be. She was part of the first freshman class of Strath Haven High School.
“The very first year of Strath Haven; everything was new, the colors, the name, everything was brand new, but I went there because I really wanted to play sports for that school and in the Central Leagues,” Fizzano said.
She entered the newly opened high school with a goal to pursue sports not just in the high school setting, but afterwards too.
“My goal was to get a scholarship to go play one of those sports in college, whichever one worked out for me,” she said.
As soon as Fizzano got to college, she joined the Penn State lacrosse team. But Lacrosse was an east coast sport at the time so a lot of the players she met at Penn State were local.
“They were from the top-of-the-line teams back then. So all of a sudden now, me being the big fish, I’m now competing with all the best girls from the area for lacrosse,” Fizzano said.
Even though it was much more challenging than playing in high school, she enjoyed the challenge and ended up learning a lot from the experience. After all, it is what she wanted in the first place.
“It was a situation where I had to work and learn and keep my mouth shut and my head down, and it was the best thing for me because I was lucky that things came a little bit easy in the early years,” she said.
There were three notable people who helped her most in her high school sports career: her two coaches and her father.
“I had Mrs. Best back then; she was fantastic,” Fizzano said. “I obviously had my father, who was one of the best coaches around in Delaware County and the tri-state area. That was very difficult coaching, or playing for your dad, who was such a high-functioning coach. Then, I had Mr. [Dan] Zimmerman for girls’ lacrosse, and I guess they all, in some way, pushed me to be better.”
Fizzano says that you have to decide what you want because playing sports in high school is a huge commitment these days.
“I think the most important thing is the parents and the player have to figure out what they really want,” she said. “Then, from there, they can make decisions moving forward as far as club, the commitment, and the time that they want to put into that,” she said.
After all the hard work of trying to get into college teams and winning games, there are still fun experiences with the team.
“I tell the girls all the time now, as a coach, that I couldn’t tell you what our records were, but I could tell you all the bus rides and all the fun stories from the hotel rooms and just being on a team like that,” Fizzano said. “Those are the good parts about being on a team. It’s just those fun experiences of just being together.”
