Alex Aust Holman Isn’t Slowing Down After 2026 WLL Championship Victory

Alex Aust Holman is still riding on the high of winning the inaugural Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL) championship with the Maryland Charm, but the professional athlete is already back to business, fully embracing mom life and her job as an assistant coach for the University of Maryland.

Holman, who scored the game-winning goal against the California Palms at Pennsylvania’s Subaru Park on Saturday, Aug. 15, helped her team secure a 16-13 victory while recording a hat trick. The two-time All-American, who played women’s lacrosse at the University of Maryland, not only secured a historic win alongside her Charm teammates, but did so less than 10 months after she gave birth to her son, Tiger, whom she shares with husband Marcus Holman.

Alex Aust Holman embraces her son, Tiger, and husband, Marcus Holman | Courtesy of Women’s Lacrosse League

Early in her postpartum journey, Holman says she got a little “caught up” in looking too far down the road in her recovery journey. Rather than setting lofty goals for herself where her training was concerned, she stayed focused on the present rather than putting pressure on herself.

“As athletes, we’re used to doing hard, but motherhood, it’s hard in a way that I never expected,” Holman admits. “I can handle the physical hardness, I can handle the recovery, but the mental, emotional side to me was a challenge that I really had to learn how to overcome.”

Holman credits her support system, including her husband, family members and friends, for getting her through that tough time postpartum. She found comfort in talking with her loved ones and being vulnerable in order to feel less alone.

“If you were to have told me even two months postpartum that I would be feeling this way 10 months later, I wouldn't have believed it,” Holman says, “I think it’s just another testament to not putting yourself in a box and not setting a feeling for yourself.”

Alex Aust Holman | Courtesy of Women’s Lacrosse League

In giving herself grace and time, Holman decided she was ready to get back into her training routine roughly four months after welcoming her son last October. She started out by reconnecting with her core, restrengthening her pelvic floor and focusing on breathing techniques.

“I did that really slowly and that wasn’t without like the mind games of [focusing on] what I felt and looked like,” she explains. “It was a really weird push-pull between craving this power and strength and speed that I’ve done my whole life and also understanding like I physically [couldn’t] do that ... [If I wanted to be] able to have the energy to be the mother that I want to be.”

In meeting the new version of herself postpartum, Holman encourages other women to take that vital time for self-discovery after becoming a parent. And in being a multifaceted woman who is a professional athlete, mother, wife, coach and friend, Holman and her teammates are inspiring the next generation of young athletes to dream big.

“You look at our team and we have so many different types of women. We have different shapes, sizes, people from completely different backgrounds. We have mothers, we have different types of women and I think showing that not just my team, every team in the WLL, showing that on the biggest stage and having young girls see their future in front of them is so important,” Holman explains.

While the 35-year-old says she grew up aware of female athletes like Mia Hamm and Lisa Leslie, she didn’t attend their games or watch female athletes compete on television. Rather, she often attended NBA or NFL games.

“Obviously, I learned a ton from Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and all those people, but I never saw how that looked to me, and what does my future path look like and how hard do I have to work to get there and showing the passion and fire and beauty I think of [when I think of] women in sports,” Holman says. “It’s the most important to have young girls, young boys be able to watch women’s sports playing at the highest level.”

Holman, her teammates and the additional three teams that make up the WLL are changing the game for young girls who aspire to have a career in professional sports. And while Holman is getting back to business at home, babyproofing her house as her son learns to walk, she’s already looking ahead to the 2027 WLL season.

“We showed an incredible product this summer,” Holman says. “That championship game just left us on such a high note and wanting more. I can't wait to see more games, more athletes, more competition. However that 2027 season expands, it’s gonna be electric.”

More Alex Aust Holman content