O'Brien's dream of playing division one field hockey complete
This year marked the fifth and final year for Hofstra field hockey veteran defender Frankie O’Brien. A native of Plymouth Meeting, PA, O’Brien played field hockey for Plymouth Whitemarsh High School where she flourished offensively. Throughout her high school career, O’Brien put up 57 goals and 34 assists. She tallied 20 goals and 15 assists during her junior year. She one upped herself as a senior, with 29 goals, and won the Nick Salamone Most Outstanding Athlete Award during.
Being from Pennsylvania, you may wonder what made her pick Hofstra. Why not take a chance to play for the Drexel University Dragons? Or the Lafayette College Leopards? Or the Bucknell University Bison? O’Brien, like many athletes, wants to win. Before O’Brien made her decision, she recognized that Hofstra was a nationally ranked team and consistently Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament-bound under former head coach Kathy De Angelis.
“The difference with Hofstra was the intensity they had,” O’Brien said. “I was sitting in this pregame meeting for my visit here, they didn’t play that well, and [De Angelis] didn't glaze over it, she ripped them apart like ‘this is what we're going to do to fix this.’”
The success Hofstra had didn’t last too long after the game-changing duo of Claudia Marin Samper and Stella Schoen graduated. The duo ranked first and second in the CAA in goals scored, however, the team was derailed from back to back 8-1 losses to close out the regular season against the James Madison University Dukes and again on the road against the eventual CAA champion University of Delaware Blue Hens, being eliminated in the first game of the 2015 CAA tournament.
Since the last playoff run for Hofstra field hockey, there have been some games worth remembering for different reasons despite the lack of playoff action. When O’Brien made her collegiate debut in 2017, she went back to her home state of PA to face off against Lafayette College. Crazy enough, her fifth and final year saw her go back to Fisher Stadium to start the season against the exact team she kicked off her college career against.
“What do you know – we started off [against] Lafayette in my fifth year here ... it's like a full circle,” O’Brien said.
However, those were only a couple of games out of the five she remembers. Frankie won’t soon forget about Hofstra’s statement 1-0 shutout win over the James Madison Dukes at Hofstra Field Hockey Stadium during her sophomore year season in 2018. “That's the first time I've ever seen Hofstra step up to a top 20 team and beat them,” O’Brien said.
The last two games the defender recalls were both losses against the perennial CAA champion Delaware. O’Brien isn’t fazed about mentioning losses, because she feels the experience was good for growth.
“We lost [to Delaware] but we were fighting so hard and I just didn't know what was going to happen,” O’Brien said. “I thought they would do full circle on us and I think we gave them a great fight this year.”
“It was so fun to play too, after those games you can’t even be mad. You just have to be proud of how far we’ve come” she added.
Speaking of the fierce young core this team has established, including Eline Oldeman, O’Brien has nothing but optimism for the future and believes the best is yet to come.
“I think they built a great foundation and they're pulling in people that just want to work hard, and, like I said, have fun,” she said. “If you’re going to work yourself into the ground every day, do it for a purpose. Do it because you’re ultimately getting better no matter if it's mentally, physically, or as a team.”
Out of the 31 goals scored this season, the freshman Lara Borensztein, Simryn Desai, Lieke Gorsse and Oldeman combined count for more than half with 17 goals.
Playing field hockey here for five years, O’Brien has encountered many different personalities, which has helped her make some personal adjustments of her own.
“Probably playing with well over 80 people at this point, all very different personalities, only staying for one year, staying for two or staying for all four, every single person I've met here, I've pulled a piece from them,” O’Brien noted. “Just shaping character and learning to be a better person and better team depending on their needs and what they taught me.”
Mentoring and teaching others has always been a natural desire of O’Brien.
“I thought I wanted to be some type of teacher, so I came in here as a global studies major,” O’Brien said.
However, her life-changing experience outside of a classroom helped clear her vision.
“It was my dream to play division one field hockey. The first coach to make it possible was Kathy De Angelis,” O’Brien said. “But when the switch came from Kathy to Courtney [Veinotte], she fueled that fire for me and was like ‘you can be so much better, you can continue to grow as a player’ and I think that growth happened between my junior year and this year and from freshman year I was just so happy to be on the field.”
O’Brien aspires to one day become a field hockey coach herself. She was given the nickname, “the mother hen” as she only serves to help nourish her teammates who have become her family. She is president of the Hofstra Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Her five years of service are only the beginning of what her legacy will one day be. From player to coach, from one chapter to another, O’Brien has worked tirelessly and as a result gets to live her dream every day.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
