It’s straightforward to marvel at Bishop Feehan’s two area hockey superstars, each fourth-year starters set to play at Div. 1 faculties subsequent 12 months.
Ava Meehan, dedicated to one of many nation’s most respected area hockey packages (University of North Carolina), is a multi-faceted scorer and playmaker whose offensive expertise outweigh these of lots of the different high gamers within the state. Kay Murphy, headed to University of New Hampshire, can be an elite playmaker whose versatility, IQ and pace has her shining within the midfield after standing out as a ahead in years prior.
Shamrocks head coach Betsy D’Ambrosia raves about their work ethic. Opposing coaches rave about their influence. They’re team-first gamers on and off the sphere.
And their yoga experience?
“Kay? Kay is not flexible,” D’Ambrosia mentioned light-heartedly of a non-public sizzling yoga class the group took for team-bonding. “Her doing some of the positions was hysterical because she could barely touch her toes and then you have a girl next to her who has her legs folded in half. … Ava doing some of the stuff, I’m like, ‘What? What are you doing?’”
OK, so all of them chortle over how the 2 supreme athletes aren’t precisely yogis. But what Meehan and Murphy anchor this season has the seventh-year program skyrocketing to new heights that few anticipated it to when the Shamrocks received only one recreation in 2017 and 2018.
Bishop Feehan has impressed early on by navigating a 9-1-1 begin. More than half of its opponents rank properly within the newest MIAA energy rankings, through which the Shamrocks sit at No. 7 in Div. 1.
Outside of a aggressive battle for one more Catholic Central League crown, nonleague wins over Needham, Westwood and Notre Dame Academy (H) are fairly significant. Even moreso is a 2-2 tie with a title-capable Franklin.
Meehan and Murphy play important roles, however are simply items to the puzzle alongside senior captain Nora Catalano, center-back Sammy Logan, sweeper Sam Blette, standout ahead Jordi Higgins, junior ahead Lily Marchand, junior midfielder Bella Colitti and defender Madi Godin. The group is enjoying in addition to it ever has.
“The seniors I think are really enjoying this,” D’Ambrosia mentioned.
“Right now because we’re playing pretty well, we obviously want to make it as far as we can until the state championship and stuff,” Murphy added. “But we’re just focusing on keeping up the wins.”
D’Ambrosia laughs when requested concerning the group’s potential to succeed in the Final Four and past. Not as a result of she doesn’t assume the group has what it takes – she very a lot does. She was simply watching the Shamrocks from the sideline when her daughter performed on the one-win squad earlier than she took over as coach in 2019.
It’s new, and she or he’s humble.
“I was watching my daughter out there before I was coaching … no (I didn’t foresee this then). God no,” she mentioned. “(We’re) humble. But also feeling like this could be it, that this could be the year.”
A unending quest for progress powers them, and that in flip has strengthened a cohesive bond.
The very first thing the group did after its solely hiccup of the season – an early 5-1 loss to Walpole – was come collectively the following day for that yoga session, laughing amongst each other. An extended record of different bonding experiences they weren’t doing in this system’s early years has them absolutely related, which explains drastic progress from the Walpole loss to the Franklin tie.
“I feel like right now, (Walpole) would be a different game,” Meehan mentioned.
They don’t dismiss their errors, however they definitely don’t drag one another down over them. Forward pondering propelled this system to its first state match journey in 2021, its first league title in the identical season, and a seventh-seed within the match final 12 months.
And on the subject of letting their upset loss to King Philip within the second spherical of the match final 12 months influence them – even for motivation – Meehan has an emphatic response.
“We just look forward,” Meehan mentioned. “We don’t look in the past, we don’t look at the last game. We forget about it, we just move on and play hard to the next whistle in the next game.”
For as heart-warming as it’s for D’Ambrosia to see how far this system has come, it’s equally so for Murphy and Meehan. The concept on the group once they had been freshman was to by no means to get too far forward of itself, however to try for as excessive because it might attain.
Now that lots of the group’s gamers are on membership groups and this system can see a viable path to the Final Four, they’re considerably relishing within the progress as they’re about to cross the torch.
“I’m just so proud of how far we’ve come,” Meehan mentioned.
“It’s kind of nice to look back and say we never would’ve imagined freshman year playing Walpole, playing Acton-Boxboro, playing all these ranked teams – it wasn’t (really) in the cards for us,” Murphy added. “There’s been so much growth.”
Chip-ins
Lynnfield loved one other profitable “Play 4 the Cure” recreation in spirit of elevating cash for the National Foundation for Cancer Research on Wednesday. The Pioneers double-down their efforts Saturday at Sutton within the Suzies’ Cancer Awareness Game within the identify of elevating ovarian most cancers consciousness.
Since falling 0-1-1 within the first two video games, Acton-Boxboro has surged to an eight-game win streak. Its most up-to-date feat is a 2-1 win over Andover on Friday, who it misplaced to by 4 targets in every of its earlier two matchups.
Perhaps much more spectacular than the 64-game win streak Watertown prolonged on Friday is its shutout streak. With a tenth 7-0 win this 12 months, the Raiders now haven’t allowed a objective in significant motion in 30 consecutive video games. The final group to attain on them was Andover in Watertown’s second recreation of 2022.
Norwood continued its huge 12 months within the Tri-Valley League with a 3-0 win over Dover-Sherborn, needing to solely beat Medway now for an ideal report in its first matchup in opposition to all groups inside league play.
Source: www.bostonherald.com