Kate Blaisdell has been a strong addition for the Hanover High field hockey team.
She’s scored 10 goals in nine games and has helped the Marauders jump out to a 7-1-1 start.
But the junior transfer from Windham isn’t only a welcome offensive presence; Blaisdell’s an NCAA Division I talent headed to Northeastern who adds to Hanover’s stash of college-bound players. Along with Macy Curtis (Davidson) and Ella Edmonds (Brown), coach Jean Essex now has three players on her roster committed to playing D-I college field hockey in the near future.
“It’s been really great to have a really supportive community, because (recruiting) can be a really challenging process,” Edmonds said. “One thing that’s been really good about it this year is everyone expects us to be playing like a team with three Division I commits.”
New Hampshire isn’t known as a college field hockey factory.
The Marauders have had their handful of college prospects in the past, but most have headed to the D-III level. Curtis’ older sister, Hannah, is at Skidmore, and Diana and Lois Schwarz play for Wesleyan.
According to maxfieldhockey.com, a field hockey recruiting website, seven players from the Granite State are committed to playing D-I field hockey.
Last year, three players in the state were recruited to play at that level. Pinkerton currently has four players set to play in college, but only one in D-I.
While the three Hanover players have meshed well, it’s been an unusual situation for Essex, managing a team with a handful of talent while making sure she’s focused on the team as a whole. Essex is a teacher at Hanover and talks with her players about all phases of their lives: academics, field hockey, college decisions, living a healthy lifestyle.
She knows how tough it can be for a D-I recruit, which is why she’s tried her best to help Blaisdell, Curtis and Edmonds as much as she can. They all play club field hockey in the offseason, and Blaisdell and Edmonds were participants in the 2018 U-16 National Futures Championship.
“It’s a different kind of challenge, because I have to make sure that I’m balancing them with the needs of everybody else, bringing everybody else along so that people don’t feel like it’s a three-player show,” Essex said. “So we’ve been taking our time, honestly. I’ve been saying to all of them, ‘It’s going to come together. It doesn’t have to come together now. It has to come together at the end of the season.’
“I’ve been through a bunch of cycles. And when you’ve been through a couple of cycles, you know that you have to capitalize and take advantage of the cycle.”
Each of the Marauders’ college-bound players have different paths ahead of them.
Blaisdell still has another year of high school before she can focus on being a Northeastern Husky. Her main priority this fall has been adjusting to the new system while making new friends and keeping her grades up. There doesn’t seem to be much question about her talent; she’s ranked as a top-50 prospect in the class of 2021.
Instead of joining the Davidson field hockey program right after graduation, Curtis will take a gap year and head to Argentina to continue playing field hockey. She’s excited about the opportunity, which she believes will allow for some growth before she enters college as a midfielder.
Edmonds is a member of the Slovenia national team and participated in the 2019 EuroHockey Championships in Slovenia against six other European national teams. She’s currently the only goalkeeper in the class of 2020 for Brown.
“Ella and I have been friends for a long time. We went through the entire college process together,” Curtis said. “It’s different having a goalie that’s also a commit. But Kate came, and it’s been awesome having someone on the field that I can always work with, in games just having a really skilled player by my side.”
After Monday night’s loss to archrival Lebanon, Curtis tried her best to stay positive.
She’s played years of club field hockey for Seacoast United and has been a starter for Essex since her freshman year. All of the experience has prepared Curtis to play at the next level; all the proof needed is her commitment to play at Davidson.
The focus is on winning now at Hanover, and she’ll need her entire team to do that. There will be the moments for her to shine as a college commit, but that’s not during the season.
Monday was a reminder.
“We definitely want to defend our turf. It’s something that we take a lot of pride in,” Curtis said. “We played as a team, and I think that’s important carrying into the next game. We’re going to remember the feeling of our first loss. We want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, especially in a playoff game.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.