They are identical twins with an identical goal, getting the very best out of high school athletes on the Riverton High School girls lacrosse team.

On this episode of the Supercast, meet identical twin sisters Hannah and Maddie Kelleher who recently led the Riverton High girls lacrosse team to their very first state championship title. It was a hard-fought victory that came down to the wire in overtime. But the winning didn’t stop there, the team had something else to celebrate as Coach Hannah Kelleher was named the 2026 Utah USA Girls Lacrosse Coach of the Year.

Audio Transcription

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this team in particular.

Student:
I mean it's like just such a special group. It is like how can I go and be successful for the team.

Student:
We all like sisters, we all support each other.

Student:
We just knew this year, like before the season even started all the seniors just got together. We decided like hey, let's just make this the best year ever.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are identical twins with an identical goal, getting the very best out of high school athletes on the Riverton High School Girls Lacrosse team. On this episode of the Supercast, meet identical twin sisters Hannah and Maddie Kelleher, who recently led the Riverton High Girls Lacrosse team to their very first state championship title. It was a hard-fought victory that came down to the wire in overtime, but the winning didn't stop there. The team had something else to celebrate as Coach Hannah was named the 2026 Utah USA Girls Lacrosse Coach of the Year.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
We are at Riverton High School on the field talking with two of the Riverton Girls Lacrosse coaches. Introduce yourselves.

Coach Hannah:
I'm Coach Hannah, I'm the head coach here at Riverton.

Coach Maddie:
I'm Coach Maddie, and I'm the assistant coach.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if you can't tell by listening to their voices, they are twins, and they are incredible. They just won, here at Riverton, the first Girls Lacrosse state title. Tell us how that feels to be part of that.

Coach:
Oh, I mean it feels great. Like, I mean, we told the girls because we had the privilege of doing it at Herriman when we were played over there in 2019. And it's like, I'm like, it's the best day ever. Coach:
Seriously, like, it's all that hard work. It's like finally coming to fruition and to have been able to make history with this group of girls, like, I mean, it's something we've been working on for three years now. And so to have finally seen it happen, like, it's just so, so awesome.

Coach:
Yeah, I mean, just to add on to that awesome feeling, awesome group of girls, I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. And so it's just an awesome feeling, so exciting. And to see all the girls' hard work come like to this, it's just awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you were players at Herriman, and you won the state title there. And in 2019, which, because it was pre-pandemic feels like prehistoric to me. That was not long after lacrosse had been sanctioned, probably. So tell me about the timeline.

Coach:
Yeah, so 2019, it was actually the year before it got sanctioned.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Corch:
So that was when they still had like the divisions. So you'd have Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 championship instead of having it by class. 6A, 5A, 4A. And so we were Division 1 state champions, which was awesome. Played Park City. So yeah, that was kind of this timeline there. Then 2020 is when it got sanctioned. And word on the street was we were going to go back-to-back, but we'll never know. We'll never know.

Anthony Godfrey:
We'll never know. I'm going to just say that you went back to back. In our hearts. In our hearts you went back to back. So tell me about the evolution of the sport since you played at Herriman the last year that it was not sanctioned. And tell me how it's grown and how it's evolved over time.

Coach:
I mean, I think the biggest thing that you see is there's a lot more players now. Back when it was pre-sanctioned, schools would have to kind of combine sometimes. So especially the schools up north, like it would be like Davis and Northridge. They didn't have enough to fill their two separate teams, so they would combine. And so I think with the sanctioning, it's getting a lot more girls wanting to play. Honestly, we've seen it with our team. We have basketball players wanting to come. We're having soccer players wanting to come. And initially it's like, "Oh, I just want to come do this for fun. Kind of on my off-season.“ And then they end up quitting their main sport to come play because they love it so much. So I think that's the biggest thing I've seen.

Coach:
Yeah, I mean, I also think the girls' game is always changing. It feels like every year we get new rules. And so, I mean, it's hard to think back to when we last played in 2019 in high school. Just again, with all those changes. But I think it's also just like a faster moving sport now with like the different rules that they've applied, which is cool to see. Right? Like it used to be a little bit odd, but now it's very free flowing and everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the rules changes that you've seen happen over the years?

Coach:
So it used to be on every whistle. So the refs would blow the whistle. The player who got fouled would get the ball. The refs would be like, "Okay, everybody four away." And they would individually have to be like, "No, you have to go four away. You have to keep backing up." Like you were the player who fouled. You had to come four behind.

Anthony Godfrey:
Four away, meaning four feet away.

Coach:
Four meters, sorry. Four meters.

Anthony Godfrey:
Four meters, okay.

Coach:
And it was like so slow. It was like every whistle. It was like, "Stop. Move everybody away." And then to start play again, it was like a whistle start. Then it's crazy because everybody on the field would have to stop. Like it would be whistle. Everybody stops. Everybody is like being positioned, whistle again. So it was just so slow. Like it made the game so slow. It was so choppy. So now it's like, you know, there's a whistle. They're giving the advantage. So it's just, yeah, much, much better game.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's a faster-moving game, the way that they're officiating it now.

Coach:
Oh, yeah. For sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this team in particular.

Coach:
I mean, it's like just such a special group. Like truthfully, like they went out there every single game. And it was never about them. It was never about their stats. It was like, how can I go and be successful for the team? We talked at the very beginning of the season, like everybody has a role. And, you know, sometimes that role is you're going to be a starter. It's going to be like you're going to be a sub. Sometimes you're going to be a bench player. You know, but like everybody has a role, and everybody is key to the success in our role. And, you know, I think a good example is that is our freshman goalie, Ellis Snow. You know, she didn't play at all that championship game. And I think sometimes it's easy to be like, “Oh, like I wasn't part of it. Like I didn't do it.” Like it's very easy to get stuck in that mindset. But you look back to Mountain Ridge, our semifinal game, and you put her in like a little bit into that second half, and she came up with huge saves. Truthfully, we wouldn't have made it to the championship game without her. You know, and so like in Mountain Ridge, she was, she played the sub role, you know, in the championship game, she played the bench role. But like truthfully, every single girl, we couldn't have done it without any of them. And so it was just good group, good group of girls, pure hearts. Like they're just great, great girls.

Coach:
Yeah. And I mean, I'll add on to that. These girls, they are like, I know it's so corny, but they're like sisters. I mean, they the seniors have done a great job of making such a good like team community, a great culture here. They embrace the underclassmen as one of their own. And they just are great leaders. Like all of our seniors are just great girls, great leaders, and have done a great job getting this team to where they are, as far as culture goes and like the hard work and everything that everybody puts in.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the two of you love most about coaching?

Coach:
I think one of two things for me, I think one, it's just so awesome to still be involved in the game. Like I am athlete at heart. Like I like to compete, and this is without playing, this is as close as I can get to still getting the wins and losses and having that competitive nature. But I think, also like I look back on my time at lacrosse and the things that I've seen from it, and like I've had some awesome, awesome coaches. And for me, it's like I want these girls to experience that. Like, I want the girls to have that state championship feeling. I want them to like, have that and just get back to the sport. And it's just been fun.

Coach:
Yeah, I mean, very similarly, I've had great coaches, I've had bad coaches. And for me, I want to be a great coach and give the girls that experience to have a good coach. A good coach, because I mean, a coach can definitely change your outlook on, I think, the sport as well as your experience. And so I want to give the girls the best experience possible. And ...