The Palmyra High School field hockey team has had extensive success, and this year was no different. The team reached both district and state semifinals but was knocked out by Warwick’s championship-winning team.
Palmyra head coach Kent Harshman, known as “Big Dog” to his players, said they were the second-best in the state this year, even if they don’t have the silver medal to prove it.
“We played the closest games that Warwick had in both the district tournament and the state tournament,” he said. “There’s no doubt about the fact that they were in a class of their own this year — they had a spectacular team, but we gave them the best game in the district tournament, and we gave them the best game in the state tournament.”
Harshman said the Palmyra girls ended up a couple of percentage points away from third place, which would have put them on the opposite side of the bracket and likely playing Warwick for a coveted medal.
But they did their best with what they were given. They adjusted their play following the first encounter and put up a fight, holding Warwick to one goal in the state semis.
“Their coach said to me after that second game, ‘You guys did exactly to us what needed to be done to us to neutralize our game. You had a spectacular game plan. You gave us one of the best games we’ve had all year,’” Harshman said.
Cougar teams have taken home state gold three times — 2005, 2014 and 2020 — with many more silver-earning appearances.
Harshman said the coaching staff doesn’t put pressure on his players to reach that conclusion each year, but the program’s history can provide pressure of its own.
“It’s really not a lot that we have to do as coaches to push our players,” he said. “They are passionate and engaged and have the same desire to produce the same results that we’re fortunate to have been able to produce year after year after year.”
Leading the team this year was a small, four-woman senior class.
Hadley Hoffsmith, Mallory Hudson and Bri Eckenroth were the varsity team captains, and Ella Longenecker was the J.V. team captain.
Harshman said he’s incredibly proud of each of them, and it will be hard to see them move on.
Hudson, who played as a forward and midfielder, will start her college career at Boston University in 2025.
She said her senior year didn’t start strong as she spent several weeks in a boot due to shin splints.
But that didn’t keep her away from the team. She provided feedback from the sidelines and helped out in any way she could.
“It’s really unfortunate that that happened my senior year, but it was honestly really cool to be able to help the team in a different way,” Hudson said. “The coaches really allowed me to still step up and be a leader.”
The key to this season? The connections on and off the field.
Hudson said the energy was “just off” for several years, with the girls not completely meshing. Over the past two seasons, they’ve tried to reset and get back to their roots.
“We just really wanted to focus on family,” she said. “No cliques, no little drama. If anything came up, we talked about it and we set boundaries early. We just really wanted to emphasize we’re a team, we’re a family and we do everything together.”
She said the team had “high hopes” for 2024. In both her sophomore and junior seasons, the team made it to district and state finals.
“Not many teams get to say that they’ve made it that far every year,” Hudson said. “[This season] was still a lot longer of a run than more high school teams even get to fathom. The whole team just feels really lucky that we can even do that, and then we made it that far, and we did it together.”
Hudson’s small senior class is leaving, and a large class is looking to take its place at the helm.
Harshman said 2025 is already promising.
“We’re very much looking forward to next season,” he said. “With the experience that many of our younger players got this year, we expect to be very strong next year.”
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