Annie Mattimore is part of what we call Original BearLaxers: players, coaches, and families who have been around since 2007 when the program that gave birth to the Tenacity Project was founded. One of five Mattimore children in the San Francisco Bay Area, all of whom played lacrosse, Annie was a defensive anchor on the talented BearLax 2015 team alongside Jackie Gilbert (Amador Valley/USC/Team USA), Audrey Evers (SF University High School/Tufts/NCAA Final Four), and a dozen other women who went on to play at some level in college. Among these teammates, and within her family, Annie always held her own, and to this day she embodies what it means to find your FIT, on and off the field.
Throughout the history of the BearLax Club and the Tenacity Project programs, more players have applied to schools “on their own” as seniors in high school than those who have gone through admissions as recruited athletes. Community attention often goes to those students matriculating to a school to become an NCAA athlete, especially as social media has become more part of the process. There are 400 Tenacity Alumnae who have gone on to play at some level in college who have been more visible as their high school teams, towns, and this club followed their careers to celebrate their on-field accomplishments.
Annie Mattimore was one of the women who went through the recruiting process and then made the strong choice fall of senior year to use what she’d learned in that process to proactively choose an experience that represented, for her, the best fit of all: attending Georgetown University and playing on their club lacrosse team. The decision to play at this level allowed her the balance she was looking for as a college student-athlete, and to also make an impact on different groups on campus, such as the Hoya Taxa club which does taxes for low-income families in the Washington, D.C. area.
In high school, Annie attended St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, and yet, through BearLax, she met girls from all over the Bay Area who would become part of her team forever off the field as much as they were by her side on it. Annie learned early, to be intentional about who she spent her time with, and she continues to have a balanced mental fitness regimen that includes both socializing with these types of life teammates and spending time alone to recharge.
Currently, Annie spends her time using her impressive degree from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business for a job in the food industry. She attributes many of the skills she uses daily to those she learned on the sports field, and specifically through Tenacity, where she developed her “amazing work ethic, perseverance, and leadership.”
Through Leaders in Training workshops and on-field lessons, the Tenacity Project empowers girls to find their fit as it relates to their choices about what they spend their time doing and who they spend their time with. Annie Mattimore is a model of someone who has found her championship fit, and who the next generation of girl’s lacrosse student-athletes can emulate on their own journeys.