.
- Thread starter Nittany Ned2
- Start date
Nice win. The national training center is just outside Lancaster, PA and around 50% of the team is from PA IIRC.
Last edited:
I've been watching, very entertaining, but damn, seems like a lot of rules for what should
be a simple sport.
Home base of the US Field Hockey team was moved from California to Spooky Nook in Lancaster about 2 years ago. Recently read an article saying it has been a great move. Previously when athletes wanted to go home, they had to fly and travel took 2 days. Now most can drive home within a few hours. Spooky Nook is an incredible facility and as Ned2 said, PA is definitely where it's at for field hockey.
3 from NE Pa on the roster: Kat Sharkey from Moosic, Kelsey Kolejejchick from Larksville, & Paige Selenski from Dallas.
My little goalie and I are watching every second of it. Like Ned said they are very fit, and fun to watch. One of their best players is an alternate this year, due to injury.
And don't worry in 2023 PSU will have the best goalie in the world.
And don't worry in 2023 PSU will have the best goalie in the world.
Paige Selenski was injured last year. She had to have surgery and really hasn't worked her way complete back onto the team yet (she is in Rio as an alternate but isn't on the active roster). Still more than half the team is from PA.
There are 16 players on the roster, 10 are PA kids - but none of them went to PSU.
Katie Bam is from Blue Bell - she went to Maryland
Lauren Crandell is from Doylestown - she went to Wake Forest
Katie Reinprecht is from Perkasie - she went to Princeton
Julia Reinprecth is from Perkasie - she went to Princeton
Katelyn Falgowski is from Landenberg - she went to North Carolina
Jill Witmer is from Lancaster - she went to Maryland
Kathleen Sharkey is from Moosic - she went to Princeton
Kelsey Kolojejchick is from Larksville - she went to North Carolina
Alyssa Manley is from Lititz - she went to Syracuse
Jackie Briggs is from Robesonia - she went to North Carolina
Can you imagine what a powerhouse we could be if we could just get the local kids to stay home (and I'm not even counting the two kids from South Jersey and the one from Delaware as local)?
FTR - Amanda Dinunzio from State College and Penn State is scheduled to join the US National team after the Olympics are over - but we still should have a much greater representation..
The PSU coach is an an amazing lady. I won't 2nd guess her decisions, one must understand the limitations of a sport that only has about 10 schollies to give. Think about it, that is about 2 full schollies to give a year. Yes they can separate the #'s but very tough to do. Our coach is one of the best in her field.
The limit is 12 - and every other D1 field hockey coach in the country faces the same limits. Char has home field advantage in that Penn State is the only high major field hockey program in the state (there are 12 D1 programs in the state, but Penn State is the only one that you would consider to be a high major). For some reason, she is unable to take advantage of that. I think she's a great coach, and she does very well with the talent that she gets, but she just isn't able to land the best talent for some reason.
For the most part, she doesn't lose the top kids to the other in-state programs, she loses them to the other high majors (ALL the top talent leaves the state - we need to figure out how to keep the ones that we want here). Pretty much the same phenomena used to happen in wrestling before Cael Sanderson was hired. Char's been here for 30 years, it's time for us to find the field hockey equivalent of Cael Sanderson (Craig Parnham perhaps) and become the national powerhouse that we should be. Char should retire and go play golf with her new husband.
Last edited:
Paige Selenski was injured last year. She had to have surgery and really hasn't worked her way complete back onto the team yet (she is in Rio as an alternate but isn't on the active roster). Still more than half the team is from PA.
There are 16 players on the roster, 10 are PA kids - but none of them went to PSU.
Katie Bam is from Blue Bell - she went to Maryland
Lauren Crandell is from Doylestown - she went to Wake Forest
Katie Reinprecht is from Perkasie - she went to Princeton
Julia Reinprecth is from Perkasie - she went to Princeton
Katelyn Falgowski is from Landenberg - she went to North Carolina
Jill Witmer is from Lancaster - she went to Maryland
Kathleen Sharkey is from Moosic - she went to Princeton
Kelsey Kolojejchick is from Larksville - she went to North Carolina
Alyssa Manley is from Lititz - she went to Syracuse
Jackie Briggs is from Robesonia - she went to North Carolina
Can you imagine what a powerhouse we could be if we could just get the local kids to stay home (and I'm not even counting the two kids from South Jersey and the one from Delaware as local)?
FTR - Amanda Dinunzio from State College and Penn State is scheduled to join the US National team after the Olympics are over - but we still should have a much greater representation..
Cant complain too much about the Princeton pick, or even MD based on where the girls are from but the ones who choose Cuse and Wake would bother me
Field Hockey: a game where the ball advanced upfield thru a series of whistles. My sister played the game in HS and college and I still have no idea what the rules are?????
For real, she's on her 2nd multi-millionaire husband. PSU lifetime assignment, I guess.
Not ALL the top talent...she has gotten some top talent in PA. Recently, Kelsey Amy of Lake-Lehman and Brittany Grzywacz of Methactonwere top PA talent, and went to PSU. Amy is PSU's 3rd,all time leading scorer and she and Grzywacz both garnered numerous B10 and national accolades.
But I agree, she should be getting more. But, they are going to Princeton, Syracuse, UNC and Maryland. Those schools have quite a FH pedigree themselves.
I was working, so tough to pay attention to the game. From what I saw, our girls played great in the 2nd and 3rd. I was very busy for the fourth.
You should add Laura Gebhart to that list. I'm reasonably sure that Laura was higher rated than either Kelsey or Brittany. Maybe ALL was a bit of an exaggeration but if you check the actual numbers, I bet close to 95% of the top players leave the state - and I'm not talking about just the superstars that eventually play for the national team, I'm talking the Top 50 players.
Here's the perfect example. Just a week ago, MaxPreps sent out a release titled "Four Top 100 Players Choose Big Ten Schools". Guess what? All four of them were PA kids. Guess where they were going? Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, and Iowa. No Penn State. Other than Maryland, those are peer programs of ours and we should be keeping those kids at home. Scan down their list of top 100 kids and you'll find a whole lot more just like them.
Plus, saying they are going to the top programs is excuse making. That's EXACTLY what you used to hear before we hired Cael Sanderson. We were losing PA kids to the Iowas, Iowa St, Oklahoma and Oklahoma States of the world and saying "those schools have quite a wrestling pedigree". Cael put a stop to that. Time to put a stop to the field hockey talent drain too.
Last edited:
Just to further my point. Here's the Pennsylvania kids who are on MaxPreps 2016 Top 100 Field Hockey Players list and where they are going:
Top Five (3 PA Kids)
Maddie Bacskai - Princeton
Margaux Paulino - Duke
Haley Schleicher - Duke
Next 45 (12 PA Kids)
Hannah Ackers - Michigan State
Casey Allen - Harvard
Bree Bednarkski - Michigan
Elizabeth Dessoye - Maryland
Megan Duvernois - North Carolina
Kiley Gallagher - Boston U
Kelsey Giese - Indiana
Alexis Horst - Penn State
Erin Huffman - Old Dominion
Kelsey Keener - Michigan State
Kelee Lepage - Maryland
Jillian Wolgemuth - Duke
Brigid Wood - Boston College
Next 50 (15 PA Kids)
Averi June Bent - Virginia
Alicia Cooperman - James Madison
Cassie Hunter - James Madison
Emma McLaughlin - Villanova
Nettie Montes - Hofstra
Ava Rosati - Penn
Kara Sanford - Providence
Alexa Schneck - Penn
Allison Schaffer - Lehigh
Laura Shelton - Penn
Abigail Siana - Villanova
Katie Supey - Syracuse
Megan Vermeil - Villanova
Claire Webb - Syracuse
Courtney Williamson - North Carolina
So, out of the Top 100 Field Hockey players that just graduated, 30 of them were from PA and only one of them is going to Penn State. That needs to change. We need to find a way to get more of them, just like James Franklin is doing, just like Cael Sanderson is doing, and just like Pat Chambers is (finally) doing.
P.S. 2016 is not an atypical year. You'll find that the numbers look pretty much the same no matter what year you look at. Also, in fairness to Char, I should mention that there are some Top 100 kids from out of state that we do land, so the program's outlook isn't as bleak as this list would seem to indicate. It's just that we are spectacularly unsuccessful in building a wall around PA and given the field hockey talent that is in this state, that's a real shame.
My daughter played HS Field Hockey and yeah the rules and stoppage of play made it unbearable to watch. Especially on grass fields. Beginning of the season they would pass out laminated "cheat-sheets" indicating the umpire signals for the various fouls. After 4 years of watching, and a turf field, it became a lot of fun to watch.
@UncleLar Not at all disputing those facts. It's more to show when she does get PA kids, they produce as Amy, Gebhart, and Grzywacz did do. Given that most of the USWNT are from PA we need to start getting more of those kids. Paige Selenski and Katie O'Donnell Bam would have looked awfully good in Blue and White.
Yep, sounds like Wrestling back in 2007. You have a major University sitting in the middle of incredible talent but coached by a ex-player who does OK. Enough is enough. Go for it, Sandy! Dominate the sport. It's within your grasp. Who is the Cael of FH?
Maybe we should hire Kristen Holmes-Winn who just left Princeton? She's in the private sector now just having resigned from Princeton in June. Three (3) players on the USWNT are hers: the Reinprecht's and Sharkey...all from PA. Or what about Karen Shelton from UNC (Kolojechick's coach) or Ange Bradley (Alyssa Manley's coach) from Syracuse. I would say take Meharg from Maryland but I don't think poaching another B10 team's coach would be well received.
Sandy can dominate woman's sports, if she wants to. VB, soccer, FH, gymnastics, basketball, fencing, hockey, etc... It wouldn't be difficult or hard to imagine.
