Senioritis at John Jay? Not a problem for these hard-working field hockey players

Goalie McKenzie Ryder is a captain for the Wolves. PHOTO BY JIM MACLEAN

By JIM MACLEAN 

When senioritis hits it usually means it is time to relax and sit back and have fun. But that is not the case for the seniors on the John Jay varsity field hockey team.

It is the opposite. There are a lot of seniors on the roster, 12 of them, and they have never worked harder. Most of them are ready for their third season as a starter on varsity, two of them are back for their fourth season, and captain Callan Keeley is back for her fifth year on varsity. That is a lot of varsity experience, and they all remember the ending last year in the semifinals, a heartbreaking overtime loss to Rye, and they are determined to rewrite the ending in their final season together.

“This has been a long awaited year, as seniors we’ve been preparing for this since we were in second grade, a decade of experience playing together,” Keeley said of her senior class. “This program has been everything to me. Because it’s our last year together, it’s putting a fire under all of us and we want to play every practice every game like it’s our last, so that at the end of the season when those big moments come in big games we can push and give everything we have.”

Even John Jay coach Debbi Walsh admits she has never had a team with this much varsity experience as she enters her 11th season at the helm for the Wolves. Just about the entire starting lineup returns, and many of the seniors were starters as sophomores. Many of them have been with Walsh since they started playing in her Bedford youth program back in second grade.

“Amongst the returning players, coming into this year we’ve already had 26 varsity seasons together combined, that is a lot of time together, a lot of time with me as a coach,” Walsh said of her veteran group. “At this point it’s all about them, how much more as a coach can I really say to them? We’re not recreating everything, we’re fine-tuning and just encouraging them to grow. We’re focusing on the mental part of the game. Opportunity is our word this year. What will you do with the opportunity given our experience? When the opportunity is there we have to finish better, it’s not handed to you and we have to find a way to push to the next level.”

In addition to Keeley, captains will be senior goalie McKenzie Ryder and senior defender Caitlin Brennan. Those two are returning starters to anchor the defense, while Keeley is a forward to lead the offense. Senior Finja Degl returns for her fourth year on varsity as a starting midfielder.

Keeley has committed to play in college at Lehigh, while senior Sophia Shaw is a returning starter at midfield who has committed to play at Skidmore.

Other returning senior veterans include Kaitlyn Condon, Sarah Swiderski, Gemma DelRosso and Sophie Belders on defense, and Catherine Natko, Rori Carvajal and Anna Kringas at forward.

It all adds up to a talented, veteran lineup, but John Jay knows what lies ahead and it will not be easy, as the Wolves will face some familiar rivals in Section 1 Class B. In addition to Rye, defending champion Horace Greeley and perennial state powerhouse Lakeland will all be competing for the title once again. Those four teams made up the semifinalists in last year’s sectional tournament.

“We have fabulous coaches and programs in Section 1, they all know what it takes to be competitive and we know what they’re capable of,” admitted Walsh.

John Jay was set to kick off the season on the road at Kingston on Wednesday, before coming home to host Pawling on Friday and Yorktown on Tuesday, Sept. 8.