Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Julie Ertz
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the first round of playoffs last year in overtime against #1 seed Downingtown West
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I broke my nose playing indoor field hockey and didn’t know it until after the game when my mom told me it was crooked.
Music on playlist: Country and Pop
Future plans: Attend Villanova University to major in math and play field hockey
Words to live by: “The only person who can stop you from reaching your goals is you.”
One goal before turning 30: To travel to Greece and have a successful job that I enjoy
One thing people don’t know about me: My dog is bigger than me.
By Mary Jane Souder
Anna Shirley is a quiet but fierce competitor.
The Central Bucks South senior is a captain of her field hockey team and is – according to coach Pat Toner – one of the top 10 smartest players she has coached, high praise indeed from the veteran coach who has been on the sidelines for close to four decades.
Just last week Shirley verbally committed to take her hockey talents to Villanova University where she will play at the Division 1 level, but if it seems as though the South senior would be eager to talk about herself, guess again.
“Who’s the most humble player on our team?” Toner asked several of her young players who happened to be within earshot.
In unison, they replied, “Anna Shirley.”
While Shirley isn’t eager to talk about herself, Toner is happy to do it for her.
“Anna sees the field as well as anybody I’ve ever coached,” the Titans’ coach said. “She’s dedicated and focused, she works hard, she is easy to get along with and just does whatever you ask her to do. She’s always very gracious and thankful. She never promotes herself, never talks about herself. She’s the ultimate kid. She not a flashy player, but she always gets the job done.”
Shirley doesn’t seek or want the spotlight. Just ask her about the clinic for Central Bucks schools she attended at CB East when she was in middle school. Running the clinic was Rutger Wiese, the coach of the U.S. Men’s National Field Hockey Team at the time. Shirley – until asked directly about it – does not let on that Wiese named her the outstanding camper out of the approximately 75 campers in attendance.
“It was really nice to get that recognition,” Shirley said. “That was one of my first times doing anything with high school field hockey and I was nervous going in, but after playing and enjoying it and seeing that I can hang with the other girls, it made me really excited for my future with CB South field hockey.”
Shirley certainly has not disappointed and has been a contributor to the varsity since she stepped onto the field as a freshman.
“She’s just a quiet, hardworking kid,” Toner said. “There’s no drama with Anna. She just always does what she needs to do.
“We can put her at any position – I’ve had her at forward, mid and back and changed it at different times depending on the game. She is in our offensive corners and our defensive corners, and our overtime team. She’s just an all-around great person and player. Maybe not the flashy player you’d pick out right away but just that solid player every team needs.”
Lacrosse coach Janique Craig echoed a similar theme.
“She’s fantastic,” the Titans’ coach said. “Anna is a low defender – she was the defender closest to the goalie, and she was the anchor of our team.
“I put her in that position because I can rely on her. That lowest defender spot is one of the most important positions on the squad because I know at the end of the day – if Anna’s there, I can breathe easy as a coach. I know Anna will step to the plate and help the team out.”
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Field hockey was a natural fit from the start for Shirley, whose mother played hockey growing up and went on to play at the club level in college. Shirley began playing both hockey and lacrosse in first grade – hockey with DAA and lacrosse with Bulldogs Lacrosse. Soccer, meanwhile, came and went when she was in elementary school, but hockey and lacrosse remained.
“I love both hockey and lacrosse, but field hockey has always been my passion and what I do the most,” said Shirley, who joined FSC on the club circuit when she was in fifth grade and never left.
Ask Shirley what it was about field hockey that pulled her in, and she’s not quite sure.
“Since I started field hockey before I can even remember, it was just something I always loved,” she said. “I can’t describe it.
“My mom was my coach throughout elementary school, so it was something we did together. I also love playing field hockey with all my friends growing up. There was never a time when I wanted to give it up.”
Field hockey is a year-round sport for Shirley, who plays indoor hockey with FSC and also competes in a spring league and trains throughout the summer.
In addition to the skills she brings to the field, Shirley is also a valued leader in both sports.
“Anna is quiet, but she’s a leader,” Craig said. “She’s extremely focused, she’s hardworking, she’d dedicated. All of her teammates adore her and look up to her.
“She’s not extremely vocal, but she leads by example and that’s the ideal leader. She’s highly intelligent, and she gets it. When I say something, she understands, and as a coach, you really appreciate that because she can then express that to the rest of the players. We’re very lucky to have her on the team – she brings so much to it.”
“She’s the kind of person people are comfortable talking to,” Toner said. “She’s supportive of her teammates, she’s trustworthy, she’s positive.
“She's technically and tactically sound – she has really good skills and sees the field well.”
Shirley is making the most of her final high school hockey season.
“I love PT and what makes it so memorable is how close we are with our coaches and each other,” the senior captain said. “It’s really like we are a family.”
Shirley also enjoys the postseason since the Titans regularly seem to play the role of spoiler when the district tournament rolls around.
“Our postseasons are always fun,” Shirley said. “Nothing beats going into playoffs as the last seeded team and beating the first seed.”
The Titans were the 16th and final team in the District One 3A Tournament last fall but sent top-seeded Downingtown West home for the season with a 2-1 opening round win.
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Shirley acknowledges that playing field hockey at the collegiate level was always in the back of her mind, and last week, the senior captain made a verbal commitment to continue her field hockey career at Villanova University.
“I’ve known the Villanova coach for a while – I know her from my FSC coach (Kelly Broadway),” Shirley said. “Just seeing her through FSC and I’ve gone to a few Villanova clinics and camps – I love the campus, I love the academic reputation of the school. It’s just somewhere I can see myself be happy and succeed at.”
Shirley, who also seriously considered Ursinus College, places a high value on academics and plans to major in mathematics with a possible interest in pursuing actuarial sciences.
Off the sporting field, Shirley is involved in OEG (Operation Eternal Gratitude), which raises donations for troops serving overseas in the military. An excellent student, she is enrolled in an AP class this fall with two more on her schedule later this year.
Shirley and her classmates have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic with this year as close to normal as any of her three years of high school.
“It’s been interesting,” she said. “It’s a lot different, and it’s an adjustment, but in a way, it takes things away from you, but it also gives you opportunities to learn how to be more independent and work on your own.”
Add adaptability to the long list of characteristics that make Shirley such a valued student-athlete.
“Anna wouldn’t say this about herself, but she’s not just a great athlete in field hockey and lacrosse and a fantastic person, but she is a phenomenal student,” Craig said. “She’s one of the most well-rounded athletes that I’ve had on my team, and that's something to be said. And she’s so humble too. She’s the type of player any coach would want."
“She’s a great student,” Toner said. “She won’t toot her own horn. She will never promote herself, she just doesn’t do that. She’s what you want in both a daughter and a player.”
