Emily Baird, a junior midfielder on the surging Bucknell lacrosse team, seems to have no interest in operating within her proverbial “comfort zone”.
A Dallas, Texas native journeying to the northeast to play lacrosse? No worries. A biomedical engineering major who has developed a passion for the cutthroat world of finance? Bring on a prestigious internship in New York City. A defensive-minded lacrosse player with a burning desire to score goals? Well let’s just spend the offseason hammering shooting drills and become one of the team’s biggest offensive threats.
“I’m super-competitive in everything I do,” Emily says. “I always had the goal of playing Division I lacrosse at a great academic school, and even though we’ve been through some ups and downs with COVID, Bucknell has helped bring out my competitive nature even more. Right now I’m so excited about our team, and I’m also really excited about the academic side.”
The daughter of Todd and Dorota Baird, Emily was born in San Francisco before moving to the Dallas area at a young age. Dorota is from Poland but actually lived in Sweden for many years, where she worked for a time as a ski instructor. That’s where she met Todd, a Nebraska native who had gone to Sweden with some friends for a New Year’s Eve ski trip. A new friendship led to more, and now the couple has three daughters, Emily and her younger sisters Isabella and Lucianna.
Emily speaks some Polish, which she picked up naturally at a very young age listening to her mother speaking the language with her sister, who had come to live with them in California. Because her mother had also acquired Swedish citizenship from her time living there, Emily also has dual citizenship with Sweden until the age of 21. That milestone birthday is only a few weeks away, so she has applied for a citizenship extension with the thought of perhaps someday representing Sweden at the World Championships or even at the Olympics, which could see the sport of lacrosse added for the Los Angeles games in 2028.
Emily picked up lacrosse in the sixth grade, although basketball continued to be her primary sport up until her freshman year at Highland Park High School. Lacrosse is a rapidly emerging sport in the state of Texas, particularly in the densely populated pockets of Dallas, Houston, and Austin. The coach who helped start her middle school program also became her high school and club coach, and before long lax had surpassed hoops on Emily’s pecking order.
“Freshman year of high school I played varsity basketball and varsity lacrosse, and as I was balancing the two sports back and forth I started to develop some overuse injuries. I really loved both of them but I also really wanted to play a sport in college and thought I had a better chance in lacrosse. So starting in my sophomore year I just played lacrosse year round.”
Playing Division I lacrosse at a high academic school was Emily’s main focus. As a sophomore, she played in an Under Armour 150 tournament, a key college recruiting showcase. Her coach at the event was Taylor Sindall, who at the time was an assistant on the staff at Division III Goucher College in Baltimore. Sindall later joined former head coach Remington Steele’s staff at Bucknell, and one of her first recruiting calls was to Emily, whom she remembered from that tournament two years earlier.
“It was one of those tournaments where you play on random teams, and the D3 coaches coach the teams while the D1 coaches watch on the sidelines. So you never know who is going to see you at what time. Taylor remembered me and remembered our conversations two years later, and then Remi is from Dallas. He was the head coach at the time, and he talked to me on one of my Thanksgiving breaks and actually gave me my offer in Dallas.”
Emily’s arrival in Lewisburg in the fall of 2020 came during the teeth of the pandemic, which made training sessions and team bonding difficult. The team did manage to play a limited nine-game schedule that spring, and Emily contributed heavily on the defensive end. She led the team in caused turnovers and earned a Patriot League Rookie of the Week honor after a particularly strong performance against nationally ranked Loyola.
“I got to Bucknell during COVID, which made for an unfortunate freshman experience, but my first impression was that I really liked our class. We were all getting along really well and were goofy together, but we also had a championship mindset. We were all really wanting to win and knew we were coming into a team that had not had much success. We knew what we were getting into, and we wanted to be the class to change that. So we were really competitive, and I love that energy. Even though we kind of went through a hard time, we did it together and supported each other, which was really awesome. Coach [Jackie] Dando was super supportive and understanding of how challenging that was for student-athletes, especially the freshmen who had also had our senior years taken away.”
Now a junior and one of the leaders on a team that enters Saturday’s Patriot League opener against Navy on a four-game winning streak, Emily has seen her role shift during her time at Bucknell, and her versatility is now on full display. Primarily a defensive-oriented midfielder and a face-guarding defender, Emily entered the 2023 season with two career goals. Now she has been unleashed as a true two-way middie and already has 10 goals this season, including back-to-back four-goal games in wins over Marist and Robert Morris.
“Freshman year of high school I was a low crease attacker, and by freshman year of college I was a straight defender. But I loved being a middie, just being all over the field. I love doing the gritty work between the thirties and just running all over the place. But as a freshman I think was a little timid and a little nervous on the offensive end. I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been, but I still really wanted to be on the field and contribute to the team, and I just took on that defensive mindset where it’s all in my control how hard I play.”
Emily had a strong rookie season and was happy to contribute, but she was left wanting more for herself. She wanted her contributions to be reflected on the scoreboard. So she trained extremely hard over the summer to get her confidence back up as a shooter. She was a regular again as a sophomore but was held back a bit by some ankle injuries, which left her back in that role as a face-guarding defender in the latter half of the season.
Back at it again this offseason, Emily’s offensive work is now paying off, as she is not only the team’s second-leading goal-scorer but also leads the team in caused turnovers (10) and ranks among the leaders in draw controls (16) and ground balls (10).
Last year’s team fell one win shy of its first Patriot League Tournament berth since 2017, with two one-goal losses to American and Boston University proving costly. Emily says that experience has fueled this year’s squad.
“You can see in practice and in the games that we are playing at a really fast level. Our confidence is up, and I just want us to take that with us into Patriot League play. Last year taught us that we need to dig deep and fight for an entire game, and we also needed to learn how to take our destiny into our own hands. At the end of the season, we were so worried about the other games around the league and what they meant for our Patriot League Tournament chances. But in reality, if we had just won those one-goal games, none of that other stuff would have mattered.”
Emily’s collegiate transformation has also applied to her academic pursuits. An avid math and science student in high school, one of Bucknell’s attractions for her was its highly regarded biomedical engineering program. Emily had an interest in making prosthetics for athletes, and when she got to Bucknell she joined the E-Nable Club, which uses 3D printers to make prosthetics for those in need.
After her freshman year, she did an internship back home in Texas with the Southern Methodist University biomechanics lab, where she was involved in a study that sought to determine factors in subjects’ vertical leaping ability.
While the internship proved to be a rewarding learning opportunity, Emily also discovered that a career in research might not be for her. Emily’s father has built a successful career in finance with Wells Fargo, and he encouraged her to do some networking and learn more about the industry.
“I talked to a lot of people, and my being super competitive has led me to investment banking internships. It’s long hours and a competitive lifestyle, but there are also a ton of former lacrosse players in the industry. I think you could make an entire lacrosse team from some of these investment banking firms. So I’m excited to do an internship in New York City this summer and then take it from there.”
Emily interned last summer with Pharos Capital Group in Dallas, and this summer she will head to Madison Avenue to work with Jefferies investment banking and capital markets firm. Ultimately, she would love to merge her two loves of science and finance, perhaps with a biotech company, and she credits her advisers at Bucknell for fostering her interests.
“My professors have been so supportive. I am definitely intent on finishing out the biomedical engineering major. I’ve been given this incredible opportunity to learn about heart valves and how water flows and so many other cool things. And now I’ll learn about the finance stuff this summer and have that experience. So it’s really rewarding to have the perspective of both, and I’m really excited to do the New York City life, at least for a little while. I feel like that’s a dream for young people. It’s going to be a total culture shock for me, but I think it’s going to be exciting. There are so many Bucknell alumni and former women’s lacrosse players living in New York City right now, so I‘m really excited to have that support system.”
In the meantime, Emily’s primary focus is on Bucknell’s upcoming Patriot League games. With the exception of next week’s non-league home matchup with Villanova, the Bison have nothing but conference games remaining, and they have high hopes for the final six weeks of the season. And Bison fans can be assured that No. 1 in Orange & Blue will be pushing the limits of her comfort zone.
Emily and the Bison host Navy on Saturday at Graham Field. The 12 p.m. game can be seen on ESPN+.
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