Though most people know Louisville for either baseball bats or a successful college basketball program, Ohio field hockey coach Neil Macmillan sees it as one of the more fertile recruiting bases for field hockey talent.
Juniors Riley Higgins and Katie Fenzel, along with senior Marissa Higgins and graduates Jessie Martin and Jen McGill, all grew up in or near Louisville. Riley, Marissa, Fenzel and McGill played for the same club team, the International Field Hockey Club of Kentucky.
But the vast amount of field hockey talent in the city that hosts the Kentucky Derby wasn’t something that was always prevalent. It was a change that was much more recent.
“It’s becoming the main female sport in Louisville now,” Marissa said. “Even when we were younger it was an uprising sport. Now, there are tons of girls who start in third or fourth grade.”
That change has been well observed by Macmillan, who feels that it’s a good place for him to recruit because of the proximity as well as the level of talent present in the area.
“It’s a great place for us to recruit because it’s only four hours away and it’s about as close as you have to field hockey around here,” Macmillan said. “So players who don’t want to be too far from home can come to Ohio and feel like they’re removed from home, but not far away.”
While Louisville was an area Macmillan was beginning to look at for recruiting, Ohio wasn’t well known to the trio from the Bluegrass State. It was former players like McGill who were instrumental in their arrival.
“I think after Jen had come here, it kind of opened the gates to Ohio,” Fenzel said. “I know Marissa, Riley and I had never heard of about (Ohio) until Jen came. And once I had visited, I was sold.”
McGill wasn’t the first to share the good time she had with the Ohio field hockey program. Martin, who was a goalie during her time with the Bobcats, told players in the Louisville area how much fun she had at Ohio, Macmillan said.
“It does help that when you get players from there that have a good experience, they tell other players to come,” Macmillan said. “They spread the good word when they get back in town. … It’s absolutely good to have people going back and helping out.”
Though they all are teammates at the collegiate level, members of the trio were competitors at the high-school level. Marissa and Riley attended Assumption High School, while Fenzel went to DuPont Manual. The games between the two schools were exciting and competitive, Fenzel said.
“It was senior year I knew I was going to come with her here,” Riley said. “So being able to play against her (in high school) was a lot of fun.”
While at the club, the three grew closer together and it made their transition to collegiate field hockey much easier.
The idea that the three would have someone they could relate to regarding their hometown and that they’d have a “family” away from home makes their experience at Ohio that much better.
“It’s just comforting to know that people from my hometown are here,” Fenzel said. “You know, they’re kind of like my family.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
