Goalies are the most often unsung and overlooked players on a lacrosse team. Frequently taken for granted and sometimes forgotten, the goalie is actually left out of some lingo of the game - when coaches and players say "let's play six on six" everyone assumes there will also be a goalie.
Coaches sometimes assign less athletic players to the goalie position, thinking of it as at least some way the player can participate and that the team can mask and protect them. This can work and is useful to some purposes, but at higher levels of competition the story is very much the other way around; the game of lacrosse is built toward lots of goal scoring and more often than not it is the goalie who masks, protects, and answers for the weaknesses of the team. A general rule is that in a goalie dilemma the coach should select the best athlete on the team.