Marie McCool, Emily Parros give U.S. team a local presence at the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship

Women’s lacrosse’s biggest global event returns this week as the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship begins Wednesday in Towson, Md. This year’s tournament includes an expanded field of 30 nations, and the U.S. team features two locals in Emily Parros (Strath Haven) and Marie McCool (Moorestown).

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The United States will be hosting the event, which runs from Wednesday through July 9, for the first time since 2005. The Americans have advanced to the gold medal game of the world championships, which are held every four years, in all 10 tournaments since they were first held in 1982. The U.S. has won eight of the 10 titles, with Australia having won the other two (1986, 2005).

The Americans have defeated Canada in the gold medal game of each of the last two editions of the tournament and will open play against the Canadians on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Parros (formerly Emily Garrity) and McCool will look to secure a third consecutive gold for the U.S. and a first on American soil. Both players are graduates of the University of North Carolina (McCool in 2018, Parros in 2013), where they played midfield and served as captains.

Here’s what you need to know about each player ahead of Wednesday’s opener.

McCool, who is one of the most decorated players in women’s lacrosse history, is one of six holdovers from the 2017 U.S. world championship roster.

She earned prep All-America honors in each of her last three seasons at Moorestown High and led the Quakers to state titles in each of those years. McCool finished her high school career with 268 goals and 94 assists.

At the next level, she won an NCAA championship with North Carolina in 2016 and holds the program record for career draw controls with 165. She is the first of only two Tar Heels to be a two-time finalist for the Tewaaraton Award as the nation’s best player (2017, 2018), and was a three-time first-team All-American. McCool, who returned to UNC as a volunteer assistant coach in 2021, was also twice named the Atlantic Coast Conference midfielder of the year during her collegiate career.

An all-around player, McCool can generate scoring opportunities while also contributing defensively.

“If she gets mad, watch out,” U.S. national team coach Jenny Levy told USA Lacrosse about McCool. “She can do things on the field that other people can’t do.”

After McCool graduated in 2018, the Baltimore Brave of the now-defunct Women’s Professional Lacrosse League drafted her second overall. She was named the league’s MVP at the conclusion of the 2018 season and won a championship with the Brave in 2019. (The WPLL closed down in August 2020 because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Emily Parros of Rutledge is another valuable member of the U.S. roster. At Strath Haven High, she captained both the field hockey and girls’ lacrosse teams. She was named Delaware County female athlete of the year in 2009 and set national high school records for both points (695) and assists (289).

She also comes from good lacrosse bloodlines as her father played at Drexel while her mother juggled field hockey and lacrosse at West Chester.

In college, Parros continued to impress, racking up All-America and All-ACC recognition as a two-year captain at UNC. She also helped the Tar Heels win the national championship in 2013.

After graduating in 2013, Parros jumped straight into coaching. For the 2014 and 2015 seasons, she was an assistant coach at James Madison, then served as an assistant at East Carolina from 2016-20. She returned to her alma mater as an assistant ahead of the 2021 season and helped guide the Tar Heels to the 2022 NCAA title. She now works under Levy, who coaches UNC as well as the U.S. national team.

When school wasn’t in session, Parros took the field for various professional teams, including the Philadelphia Force of the United Women’s Lacrosse League and the WPLL’s Baltimore squad.