As many students were glad to be done with their 8:30 a.m. classes at the end of last semester, six AU field hockey seniors reluctantly said goodbye to their 7 a.m. practices and pre-practice conditioning, letting go of a large part of their college experience.
Athletes Anne-Meike De Wiljes, Savannah Graybill, Emily Stovicek, Alyssa Poorman, Carley Boyce and Rachel Carney recently completed their final field hockey season as AU students in November, winning the Patriot League Championship for the seventh consecutive year.
The batch of seniors has received national and regional recognition for their play at AU. De Wiljes was named to the 2009 Longstreth/NFHCA Division I All-America Second Team and was the 2008 and 2009 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year. Stovicek was named to the NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad for three consecutive seasons. Graybill was selected to the All-Mid-Atlantic Region Second Team in both 2008 and 2009, while Poorman received Patriot League Goalie of the Week honors multiple times throughout her career at AU.
Of the six athletes, only De Wiljes, Poorman, Stovicek, and Boyce were recruited. Graybill looked at AU first for academic reasons, although the school’s field hockey team was a deciding factor in her attendance; Carney walked-on her freshman year.
Many may think playing a Division I sport deprives a student-athlete of “the college experience.” Instead, field hockey provided the girls with the same friendship, support and development found in sororities and clubs.
“Field Hockey taught me some incredible teamwork skills and I found some lifelong friends,” Stovicek said. “I also learned how to manage my time. I am bored for the first time in my life without field hockey.”
Coaches Steve Jennings and Sarah Thorn Krombolz also enhanced the players’ four years at AU.
“We are trying to win in the right way,” Carney said. “Our coaches don’t negatively punish us. They are trying to get the best out of us by being a really good support system for us.”
Providing both a chance to unite as a team and escape campus, an early season trip was the highlight each year for each of the three seniors. The team’s 2007 trip to Chicago was their favorite because the team was strong and the players were given time to explore the city. In addition to winning all their games, the field the team played on bordered Lake Michigan.
Although the girls will continue to see their former teammates during their free time, Graybill said she thinks their relationship will inevitably change.
“It’s going to be strange seeing them build for the next season. I am going to miss seeing the girls everyday on a regular basis,” Graybill said.
The six seniors are not allowed to practice with the team in preparation for next year’s season but can compete against their former teammates — a scrimmage the seniors would like to see happen.
“We are still a part of the team but not directly on it,” Boyce said.
Looking back over their last season with their team, the seniors all have advice and hopes for the success of the program next year.
“I want to find out if the team really believes they can reach their goals. Saying it and believing it are two different things,” Carney said. “I want to see them make it to the Elite Eight.”
Keeping the tradition of winning the Patriot League Championship is also important to the seniors, as well as beating Maryland — a victory that will break a four-year losing streak for AU.
Building a bond that connects all players, seniors through freshmen, has been a new focus of the team and one that De Wiljes said will continue to set AU apart from their competition.
“[Other teams] don’t have as much passion. They don’t look like they are having fun,” De Wiljes said. “I really don’t think they are a family like we are.”
This semester, the girls are focusing on finishing out their college education and planning their next steps. Stovicek has accepted a job offer from an accounting firm in Maryland, while De Wiljes plans to attend graduate school in Amsterdam. Both Boyce, a health promotions major, and Poorman, an environmental studies major, hope to stay in the D.C.-area post-graduation. Carney will be returning to her home state of California and Graybill has not set plans but is looking forward to using her broadcast journalism major in the D.C. area.
Many of the girls hope to have time for field hockey after college, be it coaching or playing in a recreational league. Pick-up leagues are rare in the United States, something the seniors would like to change, but De Wiljes will be able to join a club team in Amsterdam.
Despite uncertain futures, the girls know that they will make their way to Jacobs Field as often as possible to cheer on their former teammates.
“Our class is especially close with the junior class because they are the class that has been with us the longest,” Graybill said. “They have already been asking us to come back for games.”
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
