Last year the USM field hockey team didn’t turn any heads as they floated around the middle of the pack in the Little East Conference, ending the season one game above .500 in conference play and one game below .500 overall. So early this year, Head Coach Bonny Brown-Denico decided something needed to change.
This transition is a recent formation change that was implemented by Brown-Denico and is in the works of what she says will hopefully be an offensive boost for a team that is currently struggling in that department.
“We are trying out different things with changing our formation and players’ positioning,” Brown-Denico said.
Two key players on the Huskies’ team this year are included in these position changes, with junior, and former midfielder Beth Bougie (Sanford) switching from defense to midfield, and junior Wellesley College transfer Amy Richardson (Standish) who will make the move from sweeper to center midfield.
Bougie, who started all 21 games last year for the Huskies, provided solid defense and a relentless style of play and will be a key ingredient in order for the position change to be a success. She had six assists last year for USM and has been displaying her 100%-at-all-times playing style early on this season. The plan is to transfer that playing style to the offensive side of the ball to create more opportunities for the Huskies to get shots on goal.
“Changing our formation has worked much better than the previous formation,” Bougie said. “It allows us to work in triangles throughout the field, providing us with more support from our teammates.”
Richardson, who received limited playing time while at Wellesley College in 2009, is welcomed to a USM team that can use her leadership and great vision of the field, according to Brown-Denico.
“Beth is tremendous. She is one of the most explosive players we’ve had here and gives us a lot of momentum on the field, while Amy sees the field so well and knows where our players need to be at certain times,” Brown-Denico said, insinuating that these two players are the hopeful sparks of a change that needs to happen for the USM offense.
Along with Bougie and Richardson, several other veteran players give the Huskies energy and aggressive play on the field and are also planned to mesh into their new offensive scheme. Sophomore forward Whitney McDaniel (Livermore Falls) and Kailey Bubier (Auburn) have scored a combined eight of the Huskies nine goals this season so far and will hopefully continue their offensive success as USM gets deeper into their schedule.
Junior back Joanna Gaube (Woodstock, Conn.) is back for another year as a solid defender and an excellent passer and veteran back, senior Heather Gilman (Fairfield) brings leadership and goal scoring capabilities to the field for the Huskies as well.
With all of the veterans come more underclassmen, as 15 of the 27 players on the 2010 team are either freshmen or sophomores, eight of that 15 are freshmen. Although the Huskies have a somewhat young team, the coaching staff and the rest of the team have confidence in their first year players.
“This year’s team is pushed by the upperclassmen, but all of the freshmen came into the season pretty fit and are improving every day,” Brown-Denico said. “They are getting better by just watching the upperclassmen in games, and are taking that feedback and working on it in practices to develop their skills and become better field hockey players.”
Brown-Denico, who is in her 13th year at the reigns of the USM program, sees potential in her pre-season fifth ranked team, and with the new style of play they are adopting, the sky is the limit.
“We have definitely become a better team since the first day we stepped into practice,” she said. “With hard work and execution I’m expecting us to come in second in the LEC.”
“Our team has a lot of potential and I think we can do very well this season,” Bougie said. “Our record does not show the amount of talent that we have; we just need to step it up and get the ball in the net. I believe that we will improve tremendously throughout the season and be very successful.”
Should all this go as planned, USM field hockey will be back and will have found a solution to their recent scoring drought.