Season Preview: Pleasantville HS Field Hockey

Last year was a successful season for 's field hockey team, as it finished 9-7-1, including a 2-1 overtime triumph at Sleepy Hollow in the quarterfinals of the Section 1 Class B tournament.

If Pleasantville is going to again qualify for the postseason, it will have to rely on five seniors who will be leading a young Panthers squad.

A Panther squad that goes into this season with the valuable experience of participating in the prestigious Hudson Valley Summer Field Hockey League this summer at Putnam Valley High School.

“I think it brought some of the girls closer together and it got them field-hockey ready,” Coach Kristen Coffey said. “A lot of them are coming off of lacrosse or softball so it gets them back in the groove of what field hockey is all about. It’s just a really good way to get the kids in shape and ready for preseason because if you are not into shape coming into the preseason, it makes it a 100 times harder.”

One of the seniors that will be leading Pleasantville this fall is midfielder/defender Amanda Nowacki.

“She is a very aggressive player who has developed a great field-sense the past few years,” Coffey said. “She is a great leader by example on the field.”

Coffey has two other seniors that are entering just their third year of playing the sport in forwards Jackie Pfieffer and Katie Hughes, who both first played field hockey when they were sophomores.

“They are good athletes,” Coffey said. “I actually coached them when they were sophomores since we didn’t have a JV squad. For them it was good to be on the varsity at such a young age. When they were sophomores they picked up a lot from the seniors they played with, a senior class was made up of an exceptional group of kids. They have come a long ways.”

Pfieffer is always at the right place at the right time according to Coffey.

“She scored quite a few goals for us last season so she has a good knack of putting the ball in the back of the goal,” Coffey said. “She is a very good leader.”

So is Hughes, whose stick work is solid.

Heading up the defense for the Panthers will be seniors Alex Osmak and Brittany Jacobs. Coffey expects them to be extremely aggressive.

“I also expect them to lead the younger kids that are playing back there as well and teaching them the ropes as far as what the proper way of playing defense is,” Coffey said. “They are very aggressive girls that have a lot of tenacity to them. A lot of it will be leading by example.”

Like Pfieffer and Hughes, Jacobs has had to be a quick learner as this fall will only be her second year playing field hockey.

“Brittany really picked up the sport well,” Coffey said. “From what I saw today, our first day of practice (Aug. 22) she has come along pretty well considering she has just played the sport for one season.”

Coffey said as a whole this senior class is good because it does a great job picking up the nuances of the game, has an aggressive side to them and are each very competitive.

“When you put all those things together, they make up a very good cohesive unit on the team,” Coffey said.

Besides being solid players, Coffey’s seniors also have an endearing personality to themselves, that enables them to be welcoming to the younger kids on the team.

“We only have nine girls coming back on the varsity, technically only seven girls coming back and two girls coming into varsity,” Coffey said. “We are going to have a really young squad. They are such a welcoming group of girls. I see them taking the younger kids aside and trying to teach them. It’s not all about skill and dominating on the field. It’s kind of the little things that you do to make the team a team and they have the ability to do that.”

Pleasantville will start the season when it hosts Horace Greeley at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 14.