Jonathan Kaner ’18

The Wreckers threw their sticks in the air and stormed goalie Bridget Mulloy ’19 who had just saved a penalty shot. On the cold November afternoon, the superfans who made the trip to Wethersfield jumped out of their seats in celebration. The game was over, and Staples was crowned state champions.
Back onto the turf a year later, the Staples field hockey team is looking to repeat their historic championship season.
“I am extremely pumped for this season,” Hannah Roseme ’18 said. “I’m excited to build on the success we had last season.”
The Wreckers have 14 members of last year’s state championship winning team returning for this upcoming season, according to MaxPreps. “This is one of the biggest and strongest senior classes we’ve had in a long time,” captain Liv Ekholt ’18 said. “We have a lot of really promising incoming underclassmen, too, like Laine Ambrose [who] is already a starter as a freshman.”
But the Wreckers are not overconfident from last season’s success. “Every season is a new one,” Alexa Moro ’18 said. “We are very determined to repeat the success of last season.” Moro added how she knows the competition is going to be more difficult than ever.
However, the Wreckers are determined to continue their strong start to the season. “We’re really excited that we’ve started the new season on the right foot,” Moro said. The team won 6-2 against Brien McMahon at Ginny Parker field in their opening game, followed by a 2-0 victory in Danbury four days later. “We have to continue this momentum into the rest of the season, especially with the tough opposition coming up,” Moro added.
One of the Wreckers’ toughest opponents is Darien. After tying with them in the State Championship last season, Staples sees this matchup as a potential thriller. “We know what they can do,” Moro said. “But we also know what we are capable of, and this game is very important to us.”
Besides the Darien game on Oct. 19, other key games for the Wreckers include Wilton on Oct. 9 and Ridgefield on Oct. 17, who Staples lost to in the FCIAC championship game last season.
This season, the Wreckers will have three captains. While Ekholt and Christine Taylor ’18 will serve as senior leadership, Elle Fair ’19 will be a junior captain. “[A junior captain] works perfectly,” Ekholt said. “She honestly feels like a senior in the way that she’s one of our best players and is friends with everyone in all grades, so everyone respects her.”
Having a junior captain isn’t a new phenomenon for the field hockey team, as Taylor had the role last year. “I like having a junior captain,” Roseme said. “It makes it more team-oriented and not focused on individual players and seniority.”
The captains were faced with an early challenge given that Kyle Kirby ’20, who took the team by storm as a freshman last year, will be on the sidelines this season with a torn ACL. “It’s absolutely awful to be injured,” Kirby said. “But I’m so lucky to have my teammates by my side. I still get to be on the team despite being injured, which I think is pretty awesome.”
The rest of the team has been affected by Kirby’s injury. “We were very disappointed to lose Kyle since she is such a strong player and close teammate,” Ekholt said. “But she has been at almost every practice, game and meeting we have been at so it feels like she never left.”
As for the rest of the Wreckers, they know that they have a great opportunity to recreate history. “We have to go in with a strong attitude,” Roseme said. “We have a target in our mind now and other teams realize what we can do.”