7 Photos
Ava Tintle MARIANNE BARNETT
Hailey Welsch DESIREE KEEGAN
Kerri O'Donnell DESIREE KEEGAN
Melina Sarlo DESIREE KEEGAN
What can the East Hampton field hockey team do as an encore to last season’s Cinderella season?
That’s the big question, not only on the East End, but around Suffolk County. Seeded 11th in the county going into last season, the Bonackers went 10-3-1 to earn the three seed in the Suffolk County Class B playoffs, eventually reaching the county championship for the first time since 2003 — where they lost in overtime to Rocky Point.
East Hampton and its coaching staff, which got a little bit of a shakeup during the offseason, are well aware that they won’t have the luxury of being that unknown team this fall — and that’s fine. Danielle Schuster has taken over as head coach of the Bonackers after Samantha James stepped down in the offseason. Nicole Ficeto, a very familiar face to the girls, is Schuster’s assistant, along with Erica Sanniola, who will continue to coach JV, and volunteer assistant Aimee Geehreng.
“I think it’s going to be a really positive season,” Schuster said Monday night after a scrimmage against Patchogue-Medford. “The girls put lot of hard work in the preseason. We just finished doing doubles, and today was a great turnout against a Class A school. I think it’s going to be a really great season.”
“We basically have a goal to continue to improve each game and really take each game one at a time,” Ficeto added. “With this league, it’s so tight, you never know what’s going to happen, so we have to keep the girls calm, keep them confident in their skills and develop strong communication skills on the field. When it’s game time, we need to do less talking as coaches, and that has to come from them as more of a unit. If they attain that, I think they’ll be able to do some creative things.”
Numbers are good with 40 players overall spread out between varsity and JV. Schuster said 23 of those 40 will play on varsity. Included in that group are six seniors, 10 juniors and seven sophomores. Four of those six returning seniors are starters in Emma McGrory, Melina Sarlo, Aly Schaefer and Siena Link-Morse. Ava Walters, who didn’t play last season, has returned to the team, and Ava Tintle will continue to lead the defense. Kerri O’Donnell, who played forward for much of last season, is moving back to defense. Caeleigh Schuster, the head coach’s daughter who won Division II Goalie of the Year honors last season as a freshman, is returning in goal and will continue to be a part of the team going forward. And Hailey Welsch is also a key returning player.
Outside of offense and defense, both Ficeto and Schuster don’t like to give out specific positions, but just about every player on the team is so versatile they can really play just about anywhere, and some players will do just that.
“Our girls know they can wind up playing anywhere,” Ficeto said. “They all adjust very well and they’re willing to go wherever we put them. We went into this season kind of building that back line and developed the team really off of that, so there will be a lot more fluidity between the mids and forwards — so a lot of them are finding their home right now. There has been a bit of a shakeup in the line since last year, but it can all be flipped throughout the season.”
To be able to do such things, there has to be a level of trust between the players and coaches, and Schuster said there certainly is.
“They know that if one of these changes doesn’t work for them, they can’t do it, or if they don’t feel comfortable, they can always check in with us and say, ‘I don’t feel like it’s working,’” she said. “We’ve also been working on camaraderie building with them. With field hockey, we’re trying to make it a family and really tie varsity and JV together and constantly building on those basic skills where the older girls and younger girls are invested in each other.”
East Hampton will continue to play as a Class B team in Division II, where it will need to finish with a .500 record or better to gain an automatic playoff spot. East Hampton started its season against neighboring district Pierson/Bridgehampton this Thursday, August 31, at home at 4 p.m.
