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11/10/2021 11:00 PMThe North Haven High School field hockey team recently finished its 2021 fall campaign. With the end of the season came the close of Hayly Caruso’s field hockey days in North Haven.
“It was really emotional for me, because I’m not going to play in college, so our last game was my last game,” says Hayly. “It was even more emotional, because we had a chance of qualifying for states if we won, but we lost. I enjoyed the sport even if we weren’t winning, and the team made me want to always stick with it.”
While North Haven came up just shy of making states, Hayly feels proud of her team for its efforts this year. Since North Haven does not have a middle school program, there is a big learning curve for many of the players, but Hayly saw great improvements throughout her time with the program.
“In prior years, we’ve gone seasons without winning a single game, but this year, we started off really strong and tied some games. We had some really good games,” Hayly says. “We were in most of our games this year, and our losses were tough ones where we had a chance to win, compared to the past, when the games were a blowout.”
Hayly ran cross country in middle school, but when she got to high school, she was looking to change things up. Hayly joined the North Haven field hockey team as a sophomore and found that her endurance made her a perfect fit in the midfield.
While starting a new sport was a challenge, Hayly credits Head Coach Kim Bouffard and Assistant Coach Danielle Pannone for helping her develop her field hockey skills. Hayly was playing JV at the start of her junior year, but got called up to varsity by the end of the season.
“My coaches were pretty key for me developing to the player I am now, and I’ve learned a lot from them,” says Hayly. “Coach Pannone really advocated for me to play varsity, helped me learn new things as a player, and would send me videos of things to practice at home. By the end of my junior season, I was playing a pretty decent amount of time for varsity.”
Coach Bouffard has seen Hayly’s growth and notes that she has “a strong drive, brings a positive energy to the field, was a well-respected teammate, and will be truly missed.”
As she finishes her high school career, Hayly knows what she will miss the most about field hockey: her teammates, especially her fellow seniors. As the past three years went by, Hayly saw North Haven work “really well together” and feels that it showed during the recent season since “our record was a lot better than in previous years.”
Hayly will conclude her athletic career in North Haven as a member of the girls’ lacrosse team this spring. Hayly has a more extensive history with lacrosse as she started playing in 3rd grade and has loved the sport from the moment she started competing.
Hayly was excited to play at the next level as she moved up to high school. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic took away Hayly’s sophomore season, although she was able to play varsity as a midfielder in her junior year.
“Last year was a tough season coming out of COVID with no season sophomore year, so it was hard to judge where people would be,” Hayly says. “This season, we’re going in more prepared and have a lot of talent and a lot of potential.”
Hayly feels optimistic about the future of the girls’ lacrosse team as she nears her senior season. Several of Hayly’s friends also started playing in 3rd grade and, by middle school, there was a large group of athletes competing in North Haven’s rec league.
“We’ve been playing together for a long time and, now that we’re seniors, it could be a really good season, because we click really well, and we’re friendly on and off the field,” says Hayly. “I think we’ll win a lot more games and be pretty successful. It means a lot to me that I get to play this season with all of my friends.”
Hayly not only likes playing field hockey with her friends, but has learned a lot from them along the way. She also feels thankful for the many coaches that she’s worked with throughout her lacrosse career.
In the offseason, Hayly enjoyed playing lacrosse with the James Vick Foundation. Hayly shared her love of field hockey with the foundation’s founder Christian Vick, along with an idea to replicate the lacrosse program for field hockey.
This past summer, the James Vick Foundation offered a Dream League for field hockey players throughout the area. The league split players into different teams and played weekly tournament-style games.
“I didn’t think it would be as big as it was. There were so many girls who did it, and college coaches came to watch,” Hayly says. “I learned a lot from playing with the talented girls from different towns and the coaches. It made me a better player. I feel really honored by the fact that he could take my idea, listen to what I had to say, and form such a big program.”
Off the field, Hayly is passionate about her academics and other activities. Prior to the pandemic, she volunteered at Yale as a patient aide. Hayly has been teaching CCD at Our Lady of Mount Carmel since her sophomore year. During the summer, she works as a lifeguard at the High Lane Club.
Hayly challenges herself with AP classes and is a member of the National Honor Society. She is also a member of Student Council, Best Buddies, the school newspaper, the Asian Club, and the Latin Club, for which she serves as president.
Hayly has not yet committed to a college, but the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is her dream school. Hayly has toured several schools in the south as she enjoys the warmer weather. Hayly has wanted to be a pediatric oncologist for several years and plans to study economics or humanities with a pre-med track in college.
“I work hard in school, because I want to set myself up to get into the colleges I want to get into and set myself up for the future,” says Hayly. “My family is really supportive, especially my mom [Cori Campion]. She has always been there with school and sports and is always taking me to and from all my sports. I really depend on her for a lot of things, and she’s the most influential to me when it comes to that.”