ALL CITY

Field Hockey Athlete of the Year

Molly Turner

Posted 6/25/13

Molly Turner has no shame in saying she wasn’t very good at soccer.

After all, if she was a little better on the soccer pitch, she might never have found her way to a different field. …

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ALL CITY

Field Hockey Athlete of the Year

Molly Turner

Posted

Molly Turner has no shame in saying she wasn’t very good at soccer.

After all, if she was a little better on the soccer pitch, she might never have found her way to a different field.

Turner started playing field hockey at Toll Gate, fell in love and emerged as one of the best players in the division during her four-year career.

She has soccer to thank.

“I wasn’t that good at soccer, so I decided I would try something different,” she said with a laugh. “I really just love the game. I had never played ice hockey and I had always wanted to. So field hockey was something I was drawn to.”

As soon as she picked up a stick, she realized she’d found a passion.

In the beginning, Turner’s athleticism carried her, and it was enough to make her a solid player. As she became more skilled and more driven, she turned into the team’s best all-around player.

Her best year came in 2011, when she and a strong group of seniors led Toll Gate to a six-win season and a spot in the playoffs. With those seniors gone this year, Turner did her best to set an example for a young and inexperienced team.

“It was really a rebuilding year for us and we wanted to make sure all the girls coming up would have the skills that they needed to keep playing after the seniors this year graduated,” Turner said.

Turner never wavered in that purpose, even though it was a tough year – and even though her numbers went down. The Titans finished without a win.

“We tried to band together as a team and overcome all the graduation losses we had from the year before,” she said. “It was tough, but I think we pulled together pretty well as a team. Hopefully next year, they can continue on.”

Though the Titans didn’t have a lot of success, Turner was a player any coach in the state would have liked to have.

And when Turner got a look at the cage, she was firing.

“I was probably a little too aggressive – hitting the ball too hard and too high,” she said with a smile. “But I just tried to get as many goals for our team as possible.”

Turner will attend the University of New Hampshire in the fall and she’s hoping to play for the school’s club field hockey team.

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