By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
With Mike Mason stepping down as head coach this offseason, a new era is under way for Medfield High School field hockey in 2019 under first-year head coach Allison Driscoll.
For Driscoll, the goals right now for her team are simple: build unity, improve upon skills and conditioning, and become stronger.
Along with their new head coach, the Warriors will look to three senior co-captains for leadership this fall in forward Kelcey Harkins, midfielder Mia Reine and back Caroline Nealon.
“The girls are great,” said Driscoll of her senior leaders. “The captains have stepped up with helping the other girls level up. I would say I definitely showed up and asked a lot more of them this year in terms of their overall sense of urgency and speed. We had fitness testing at preseason this year, which they’ve never had to do before. We’re doing a lot of fitness in practice and the captains are always making it positive and encouraging the girls to get the most out of each other. I’d say that they are just doing a good job of stepping up and getting done what I’m asking them to do, and I’m asking them to do a lot. They are all very coachable and are very excited. I couldn’t ask for more in my first year as a head coach.”
As far as the roster look is concerned, Driscoll says she and her staff are excited to see a solid mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen work together in her inaugural season at the helm.
“We have pulled athletes from each grade level this year,” said Driscoll. “So we have a full compliment of contributors from all grade levels. The goal was to just find the most coachable athletes and try to put them together to build the strongest varsity team that we could.”
In terms of goals, Driscoll says her team is just taking things one step at a time. Fundamentals, conditioning and stick skills are the main focus before anything else can be given attention.
“Our general goal is focusing on stronger skills,” said Driscoll. “We really want to get into a passing game. We are working on having really good receiving and passing skills while working with every single person on the team to work as one unit.”
The Warriors will host rival DS on September 6.
For funny and insightful sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter @fLAno0.
