Balance.
Junior attacker Ashton Whittle has found balance in her life while playing lacrosse and also juggling school. She is in the nursing program, which is one of the most extensive programs at Colorado Mesa University (CMU).
Whittle wants to care for people in her life and that is what drew her to the nursing program. She wasn’t always sure of becoming a nurse though.
“If I went the cellular molecular/pre-med route, I’m still going to have to go through so much med school and so many different things, I won’t be into my career into my 30s, and that’s going to be my entire life,” Whittle said. “I want some free time, I want to be able to have time to go do things, experience different things, and have time for myself. Instead of my work being my life, I want to bring my life into my work.”
She has a natural calling to care for the people in her life whether that be on the field or off the field.
Whittle’s work ethic, personal skills and caring attitude all translate both on and off the field.
“My aunt has been an ER Nurse for 20 years, and she is one of those people that thinks on her feet and going. She’s like ‘I could see you being a great ER Nurse because you’re doing so many different things at so many different times.’ That directly correlates with lacrosse.
“I feel like lacrosse has been a catalyst in making me successful in nursing school because it has taught me those skills. I’m always on my feet, I’m always going, I’m problem-solving, I’m figuring it out, I’m communicating with people and all that translates into the health care field,” Whittle said.
Those skills have helped her take the next step with her leadership skills, but early in the season, she was forced into an even bigger leadership role. Senior attacker Kenzie Blackwell went down with a season-ending injury, and Blackwell was the leader of the Mavericks offense.
Blackwell has scored 97 points throughout her career, and her loss left a gap that needed to be filled.
“She was a big facilitator, and a big person on the offense that was able to settle it down and get things going, and that was a role that needed to be filled,” Whittle said. “I would rely on Kenzie to be like, ‘hey we are going to do this, and I would try to work with her on that.’ Now, I’m the one that must read how this defense is playing against us and see what different plays of ours we can try to try and break that up and capitalize,” Whittle said.
This led Whittle to try to create an environment where everyone can collabor-ate and contribute tow-ards the team’s success.
“Coming from an underclassman, I kind of felt a little nervous to say things sometimes because I’m like oh I’m an underclassman and they are an upperclassman, they have more power. That nervousness translated to the role I’m in now, and I try to make sure everyone has a voice,” Whittle said.
“Some freshmen are seeing some things that us upperclassmen aren’t seeing, and I wanted to make a space that everyone could say what they want, and it’s not just the upperclassmen taking over the conversation because there is so much that everyone has to offer on the team. So, I’ve become more of a listener, so I’ve tried to listen to understand rather than listen to respond.”
The Draper, Utah native wasn’t sure if she was going to play college lacrosse. Whittle was going to go to the University of Utah to focus on academics and not play lacrosse before senior midfielder Nici Boutwell convinced her to visit CMU.
“I was talking to my club team about Mesa, and what it had to offer. Ashton was like, ‘yeah I’ll drive through,’ nothing is really that great in Grand Junction. Then, I talked to her about it, and she came to visit the campus and she loved it,” Boutwell said.
Whittle has scored 54 points and won 58 draw controls since arriving on CMU’s campus in 2018.
