IF IT’S RAINING LETTERS—as in written letters, tucked inside envelopes—it must be either field hockey season or girls lacrosse season at Lake Forest High School.

Cat Catanzaro coaches both varsity teams. On the eve of each game, following a team huddle, Catanzaro tosses the paperwork skyward and walks away. A drop-themic moment, without a shred of boastfulness. Her Scouts then turn into instant outfielders, eager to dart here or dive there to catch the fluttering envelopes.

Handwritten names—of starters, of nonstarters—adorn each envelope. Inside? Motivational words, entreaties to fight for every ball tomorrow, a list of the next opponent’s strengths, fun stories, heartfelt words. Catanzaro eschews the mass-email and group-text routes in the Age of Convenience. Too easy, too impersonal. Cat’s players head home and read Cat’s sentences before their heads hit pillows. The 20th player on a team of 20 closes her eyes and feels as appreciated as the star player does.

“I got the letter-system idea in college, my freshman year, when a field hockey teammate put a letter in all of the players’ mailboxes the night before a big game,” says the 44-year-old Catanzaro, a field hockey sweeper and two-time All-American at Longwood College (now University) in Farmville, Virginia. “It pumped all of us up.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is so cool.’ ”

Wins mean the world to Catanzaro, a Wellness teacher at LFHS. But a “W” in her book isn’t just something that’s earned on a playing field or a letter that appears, uppercase and lowercase, in her letters to players. Say a Scout plays four seasons under the direction of Catanzaro, learns all kinds of invaluable life lessons in practices and games, and plays zero minutes at a prestigious college but graduates summa cum laude.

That’s a major “W” in Catanzaro’s book.

Some of that Scout’s summa must have started growing years earlier near the end of, say, a tight game against New Trier High School. Or in the middle of a grueling drill before a playoff game.

“I put much more emphasis on the process of developing a team and developing individuals—on and off the field—than I do on results,” says Catanzaro, who lives in Gurnee with her husband, Lake Forest College Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach Jim Catanzaro, and their children, Caden, 9, and Katie, 5. “I’d like to think that experiences gained through sports helped my players get accepted by schools with highly regarded academic reputations. I’m a demanding, high-energy coach, who never wants her players to walk at anytime during a practice; practices should be constant running and more intense than games.”

Cat met Jim when both were college coaches in North Carolina, Cat at Catawba College (field hockey) in Salisbury, Jim at Wingate University in Wingate. Cat at Catawba. Fitting. Perfect. The campuses stand nearly 70 miles apart. Intense football rivals. The onerous recruiting aspect in college athletics pushed Cat to return to the coaching ranks in the prep realm. The coach of a Texas state runner-up girls lacrosse team (Episcopal School) in the early 2000s, Catanzaro guided Highland Park High School’s girls lax team from 2006-2008 and launched the Warren Township High School girls lacrosse program before the start of the 2009 season.

She has coached the Scouts’ varsity lacrosse team since 2014 and the Scouts’ varsity field hockey team since 2017, following a seven-year tenure as LFHS JV field hockey coach. Catanzaro’s 2017 field hockey crew captured the state title and her next two editions finished as state runner-up.

“Coach Cat is creative and organized—that’s the best way to describe her,” says Gracie McGowan, a 2020 LFHS graduate and a Princeton University sophomore field hockey defender/ midfielder. “I loved those letters we got before games. I still have them, all of them. They’re in a box. I’ve known her since 2009, because my older sister (Ginny) played for Cat’s teams. I knew, right after meeting her for the first time, that she was a great coach.

“Her communication skills are amazing,” McGowan adds. “She gives good advice about sports, about life, about anything. When you’re on one of her teams, you’re going to hear something insightful from her, every day.”

Barbara Canty (LFHS, Class of 2018) is a senior field hockey goalie at Sewanee (University of the South), in Tennessee. She, too, misses Cat’s letters, as well as the coach’s sense of humor and the team camaraderie that Catanzaro engenders through her leadership and personality.

“Coach Cat is an extraordinary and inspiring coach,” a grateful Canty says. “She trusted me and always pushed me to do my best. We knew what we needed to focus on each game because we had read those letters and reflected on their messages, the night before. Through those letters, which were stories, she made it clear that every person on the team would have something to contribute, even those who wouldn’t play the next day.”

Cat, the coach, disappears briefly every spring around prom time. That’s when Cat, the friend/second mother/ protector, shows up after a practice and addresses the team huddle.

“I tell them, ‘If you’re at prom and you feel you can’t handle something, call me. I will come and get you and make sure you’re safe,’ ” Catanzaro says. “I would do anything for my players. Anything. My players are part of my family. Our son, Caden, has hundreds of ‘brothers’, who are Jim’s football players.

“And his ‘sisters’ are all of my players.”