READY TO STRIKE: Princeton Day School field hockey player -Elizabeth Brennan prepares to hit the ball in action last fall. Sophomore midfielder/back Brennan figures to be a key performer this fall for PDS. The Panthers were slated to get their 2015 campaign underway by playing at Princeton High on September 8 and at Stuart Country Day on September 10. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
For Heather Farlow, playing field hockey at Rutgers University in the mid-1990s was a transformative experience.
“The most important things I took from that were teamwork and hard work,” said Farlow, a forward for the Scarlet Knights from 1994-1997.
“Some of my closest friends are still my teammates from there. It was a great experience.”
Now Farlow is looking to help the players on the Princeton Day School field hockey team enjoy a similar experience as she takes helm of the program as its new head coach.
“I just want to have them embrace change and realize that I want this to be a learning experience for them,” said Farlow, the successor to Tracey Arndt, who decided she didn’t have enough time in her schedule to continue in the post.
“I am going to ask them to take some risks and possibly play in some positions they haven’t played before and to embrace that because we are trying to put them in situations where they have success. We want to play to everybody’s strengths. You can’t always do that but we are going to try to see what our strength is as a team and capitalize on that.”
Shortly after graduating from Rutgers, Farlow took a risk, heading to Texas to take a teaching and coaching post at a private school in the Dallas area.
“I saw a job posting from the U.S. field hockey website for a job in Forth Worth.” recalled Farlow, who did some grad work at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
“I interviewed at Fort Worth Country Day and then I saw a job posting in Dallas at the Greenhill School. I interviewed there and ended up getting an offer at both places and picked the job at Greenhill in Dallas. I thought it will be fun, it will be an adventure and I will stay for a couple of years and then came back. I ended up staying a lot longer than I had anticipated.”
Farlow stayed at Greenhill for 11 years, guiding the field hockey squad to a number of winning campaigns, highlighted by a 19-4-2 mark in 2012, setting a program record for single season wins.
During her tenure at Greenhill, Farlow’s teams featured a high octane style. “I like to play a team game, a passing game,” said Farlow.
“I like to play up tempo and really move the ball around. I like to play a game that is more like soccer with the ball movement.”
After more than a decade in Texas, Farlow, a Delaware native, decided to relocate to the east coast.
“It was to be closer to family,” said Farlow. “I enjoyed my time out in Texas tremendously but I have been looking to come back east for a while.
Meeting her new charges on August 24, the first day of preseason, Farlow is working on developing a family feeling around the program.
“It has been great, they are very responsive, they work hard, and they are eager to please,” said Farlow.
“We are continuing to push them to be a little more vocal and take more ownership of the field. We want them to continue to learn the game as much as they can. We are a little young but that is OK. I am just really excited, they are a great group of girls.”
Senior stars Lauren Finley and Rowan Schomburg figure to be two of PDS’s most exciting players this fall.
“It is pretty clear that some of the players have had a lot of varsity experience, they are standing out,” said Farlow, citing Finley and Schomburg.
Other standouts so far include junior Kiely French, senior Kate Laughlin, sophomore Madison Mundenar, and a pair of freshmen, Val Radvany and Gwen Allen.
“Kiely French is playing both midfield and defense; Kate Laughlin is doing a great job vocally being a leader,” added Farlow.
“I have two freshmen, Val Radvany and Gwen Allen, who have got a lot of promise. Madison Mundenar may have played midfield and forward last year and I am going to play her in the back to get a little more speed back there.”
Farlow is hoping that PDS gets up to speed quickly as it looks to improve on the 2-14 record posted last fall.
“We have to continue to have good ball movement, to really work on creating quality scoring opportunities, and to play solid defense inside the circle,” said Farlow, whose team was slated to get its 2015 campaign underway by playing at Princeton High on September 8 and at Stuart Country Day on September 10.
“We are moving the ball pretty well as a team. They are very nice girls but we have to get them to show a little more grit so to speak, trying to get that drive.”