The freshman four.
Freshmen flight squad.
Four freshmen, an eagle and a high school.
Come up with any nickname you’d like for Samantha Derkas, Kaitlyn Birnbohm-Kaminski, Kasey Mitchell and Abigail Regn because, though it is still early in the season, the Golden Eagle field hockey team is flying high with the addition of four freshmen varsity starters.
Four freshmen contributing on the varsity level is a rarity but a welcome one for head coach Julie Smith.
“I want to know that they are going to get consistent playing time if they’re going to be on the varsity team, otherwise I want to let them play together on the freshman team,” Smith said. “For them to be able to play together and build that trust and familiarity with each other is important. But these four girls were able to contribute on varsity right away.”
The four girls proved throughout camp and preseason they were ready to play at the varsity level.
“Kasey and Abby played in summer league and showed they were ready for the challenge. Kaitlyn came to run and lift with the team over the summer, she’s a great athlete. Sammy I saw play in a tournament over the summer, and she was just so fast. She’s so eager to learn, she’s like a sponge,” Smith said.
With such a young core of talent, the challenge early on for Seneca was harnessing that ability into a winning team.
“We knew we had the ability, but we struggled in the preseason. It was about finding that confidence in ourselves, and then we started to recognize how good we could be,” Smith said.
Seneca opened the season winning six of eight games before playing to a draw against Washington Township on Oct. 1. But by no means does that leave the Golden Eagles with nothing to work on, Smith said.
“The biggest thing we need to work on is to not give up. Not give up on plays, not give up on games. They give themselves a little time off during games. They’ll take plays off, and we can’t do that if we want to be successful. I’ve been helping them dig deep and know they have to play a full game for us to win,” Smith said.
Birnbohm-Kaminski provides a spark off the bench for the Golden Eagles, which is something the team has lacked in recent years, Smith said.
“Our depth has been really strong this season, and a lot of the time the girls coming in fresh off the bench are the ones who are scoring goals for us,” Smith said.
Senior goaltenders Gianna Petagno and Cailey Talbot have been a steadying force for the Golden Eagles as they have combined to allow only 14 goals in the team’s first nine games.
“They’ve played off each other so well this season. Both are strong goalies, so it’s been great to have some flexibility there this season. I have enough confidence in both of them that I’ll pick who is going to start after watching them warm up before that day’s game,” Smith said.
As the regular season schedule winds down the rest of this month, Smith said the team is looking forward to avenge early season defeats that came against Bishop Eustace and Paul VI. Those two schools were the only ones to beat Seneca this season as of Oct. 6.
“We’re excited about the games coming up. We want to keep improving and keep winning games,” Smith said. “I know the girls really want to keep this going and keep building.”
