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10/19/2017 12:00 AMLauren Wright has truly shown her colors as the ultimate team player who took on a completely new role for the benefit of the Westbrook field hockey squad. The move helped ignite the Knights’ offense, and they’re playing some solid field hockey during the home stretch of the regular season.
Lauren, a senior captain, emerged as Westbrook’s starting goalkeeper last fall, when the Knights claimed their first Shoreline Conference Tournament title and won a share of the Class S state title. Lauren garnered All-Shoreline Conference Second Team honors for her performance in the cage.
This season, Lauren picked up right where she left off by allowing just one goal with four shutouts in the first five games. However, Westbrook only won one of those games and scored just one goal in the stretch, and so Head Coach Janet Dickey decided to have Lauren play in the field as an attacking center defender. Since then, the Knights have gone 4-1-1 with 11 goals scored to improve to 5-2-4 on the year.
“The coaches asked me if I mind that they switch my positions, and I said it was up to them. It wasn’t that hard of a switch for me, but I wish I could play both positions, because I love them both,” Lauren says. “With goalie, I love making the dives and saving goals. In the field, I love bringing the ball up and pulling left and right with it. I just love helping the team out in any way.”
Lauren’s previous point of view gave her some insight on certain things Westbrook needed to do to produce more points. As the lone senior on the club, Lauren sensed that her teammates got a bit of a boost with her patrolling the turf alongside them.
“As a goalkeeper, you see everything on the field, and I saw what I thought needed to be changed and wanted to bring that to the field,” Lauren says. “Being that only senior, I felt once I was on the field, I think they had a little more confidence. I know being the goalie last year boosted my confidence as a player, and I can’t thank my coaches enough. They mean the world to me.”
Both of Lauren’s coaches knew it was a tough call to remove such a quality goalie from her post. However, they were also confident in Lauren’s abilities to be a well-rounded player who could give Westbrook the jolt it needed.
“Lauren is truly the best athlete on our team. It was a difficult choice to pull one of the state’s top goaltenders out of the net midseason, but it was what was best for our team,” says Knights’ assistant coach Emily Alger. “Lauren did it willingly, completely comprehending the situational need. Our team scoring has improved 100 percent since putting Lauren on the field. Her competitiveness and leadership drive our attack.”
“Lauren’s ability to play in the goal, as well as on the field, make her invaluable to the team,” Coach Dickey adds. “She is an impact player in both spots.”
There’s a lot of responsibility on Lauren as Westbrook’s lone senior captain, but she works well alongside the people with whom she shares that leadership role. Lauren adds that as a much as she likes playing goalie, she likes seeing the Knights win games even more.
“Being a captain as the only senior is a little harder, because I don’t have that player my age to look up to. My other captains [Avery Bauman and Katherine Dahl] are great. They are juniors, but they act like seniors. My teammates look up to me, but they push me to go harder,” says Lauren. “Our offense is scoring more. We had a lot of 0-0 games in the beginning, and it was frustrating being in goal and not being able to help them out. We’re more consistent with our scoring now. I only have one goal since I came on the field, but as long as others are scoring and having a good time, I’m happy.”
Even though the Knights seem to be hitting their stride right now, Lauren says they’re keeping a level head. Lauren knows that small steps still need to be taken if Westbrook wants to make another giant leap in the long haul.
“Our coaches keep drilling in our head the idea of keeping it simple and going one game at a time. Sometimes we look ahead, but we know we have to de-stress and take it one game at a time,” says Lauren, who thanks her parents, Emily and Dave, along with her Westbrook coaches. “It helps us with our play when our coaches relax us, but we’re excited to have a successful year.”