By Kevin Carroll -- SPORTS EDITOR
After losing seven starters from last year’s team, a major facelift was in order for the Hofstra field hockey team as it prepared to take the field in 2017.
Gone are program stalwarts like Claudia Marin Samper and Stella Schoen. Gone are pivotal role players like Carissa Witmer and Colby Hussong, as well as a solid goalkeeper in Lauren Saltus. For this team to stay afloat in 2017, all the production and experience that had departed had to be replaced in some form.
Enter a talented crop of freshmen that have taken this team by storm, establishing the Pride as a program that could make waves this season, while securing a bright outlook for the future.
New faces like Philine de Wolf and Hannah Zemaitis are quickly making a name for themselves.
There’s one name that – even though she likely would be the first person to disagree – may in fact stand out among the rest as a player that Hofstra fans will want to keep an eye on as her career continues: Frankie O’Brien.
“We definitely have a lot of contributors to the team … because the team’s been so good in the past, I didn’t really know what to expect,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien, a defender from Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, has already put her stamp on the Pride, just nine games into her collegiate career. So far, she has three goals and two assists, good for eight points. She has emerged as a defensive leader, as a workhorse and as someone who could impact the game in many more ways than one.
Through her first nine games, O’Brien has logged 630 minutes played, more than anyone else on the team. In fact, it would be impossible for any of her teammates to best that mark; Hofstra has only played 630 total minutes so far this season. In other words, O’Brien has yet to come out of a game this year, despite her freshman inexperience.
“In the backfield, there’s not as much subbing as on the forward line,” O’Brien said. “You just have to know that you need to be in shape to make sure we could stay on the field for 70 minutes.”
While the freshman is still learning and adjusting to playing the game at the collegiate level, O’Brien arrived on campus with a wealth of experience from her days in high school.
Before making her way to Long Island, O’Brien was a star at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, just outside of the Philadelphia area. In her senior year, she posted 29 goals and seven assists, 67 points in total. She’s been an All-Pennsylvania selection three times, including earning First-Team honors in her junior and senior seasons.
The list of O’Brien’s high school accolades is too long to list, but coming from a state that’s become known as a field hockey hotbed, it’s a list that certainly can’t be ignored.
Even so, making the transition from high school field hockey to NCAA Division I-level competition was not easy.
“The game’s definitely a lot faster than it used to be,” O’Brien said. “Teams have better stick skills. You could almost expect there to be a great amount of competition, regardless of what team you’re playing.”
It helps that O’Brien is surrounded by teammates and fellow freshmen that she knew dating back to her high school days. Freshmen like Zemaitis and Taylor Casamassa also come from the Keystone State, and O’Brien got to know them during the recruiting process.
“The freshman class is definitely very close,” O’Brien said. “We’ve been able to play each other before … Pennsylvania is a hockey hub.”
It’s also been helpful playing under Hofstra head coach Kathy De Angelis, a veteran of the sport that’s been serving at the helm of the Pride for 20 years now.
“Her coaching style is more of her taking control … you’re learning constantly,” O’Brien said.
De Angelis knew coming into the season that she was going to need her class of recruits to make an immediate impact, and she hasn’t been disappointed by what she’s seen so far.
“We’ve been very thrilled at the level they [the freshman class] came into training camp at,” De Angelis said. “We did expect to see a number of them to step in, especially since we lost 10 seniors.”
But O’Brien’s progress has been especially promising for Hofstra, as the Pride has established a new identity in 2017 as a defensive-minded team. Elite goal-scorers like Marin Samper do not grow on trees, so the Pride has had to switch mindsets and become a team that will shut opponents down, rather than light them up on the scoreboard.
Playing alongside All-CAA preseason teamer Marloes Schavemaker on the back line has helped O’Brien grow as a defender and as a leader on the field – a role that she has begun to embody, even in her first year.
“It’s been very impressive … when you’re the center back, you are the field general,” De Angelis said. “That position carries a lot of weight, because you have to communicate.
“From day one, Frankie has exemplified the leadership role. I couldn’t ask her to be a better leader than she is now in the limited experience that she’s had.”
It’s these leadership skills that will best serve O’Brien in the long run. As a secondary education major, it’s very likely that she will be transitioning from leading on the field, to leading in the classroom.
But according to O’Brien, there’s one stop on her list first: the Peace Corps.
“I’ve always had an interest in different countries and developing countries in particular. I’d love to go over and help out, and learn about different cultures and ethnicities.”
Only time will tell if O’Brien will make her mark on the rest of the world. For now, Hofstra fans will get to enjoy watching her make her mark on the field for the next four years.
With O’Brien at the center, this freshman class has established Hofstra as a program with a bright future. But for O’Brien, the future is now.
“I think if we keep working hard, keep a positive attitude and keep fixing mistakes, the sky’s the limit.”