Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Mallory Pugh
Favorite team: US Women’s National Soccer Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning league champs this year for the seventh time in a row
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One time in the middle of a game, my teammate swung at a ball and let go of her stick. The stick must’ve flown at least 15 feet in the air and 20 feet across the field. No one knew what to do so everyone just stopped and stared.
Music on mobile device: EDM, Pop, Rap and 2010 Justin Bieber songs
Future plans: Become a Physician’s Assistant and own a large dog
Words to live by: “In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” -Lewis Carroll
One goal before turning 30: Go skydiving for the first time
One thing people don’t know about me: I’ve donated my hair four times to Locks of Love
By Mary Jane Souder
Livia Truong is a standout defender in the backfield of a Plymouth Whitemarsh field hockey team that has done nothing but win. This fall the Colonials captured the program’s seventh consecutive SOL American championship and advanced to the District One 4A title game for the first time since 2004.
It’s hardly a surprise to hear that Truong is passionate about her sport. After all, what’s not to love about winning 56 straight conference games (67 all told) for a program that has lost just nine games during her four-year career.
“I’m pretty sure my coaches are tired of me because I always come in their class during school or jump in their meetings, and I’ll always be talking about the team we’re playing next or talking about a new play,” Truong said. “I talk about my new stick, I talk about everything field hockey. I stalk field hockey all the time.”
So invested is Truong in her sport that she no longer can access several web sites that cover field hockey from her school computer.
“Our school blocks you if you’re on things that aren’t relevant,” Truong explained. “Other people can go on the sites, but I go on too much so they stopped that.”
Interestingly, Truong had no plans to continue her field hockey career after high school even though she knew walking away wouldn’t be easy.
“She’s always been a player every season sophomore year and on – at the end of the season, she would come into my room and say, ‘I’m going to miss this so much. I love the team – the field hockey team is the best part of my school year,’” coach Charise Halteman said. “She always expressed those sorts of feelings.”
With her final high school season winding down, Truong is no longer quite so sure she can or will walk away from hockey. It’s a change of heart she had when the Hofstra coach came calling.
“After the Hofstra coach reached out to me, I realized I didn’t want to stop playing field hockey after this season,” Truong said. “It was something I wanted to keep going with. I visited the campus and I met with the coaches, and I really, really liked them. I never knew I would be at a good enough level to play collegiately, so when the Hofstra coach reached out to me and said I had potential, I was a little shocked.”
Truong, according to Halteman, clearly underestimated herself.
“Hockey is something that has always meant a lot to her, and she’s had a lot of fun doing it,” the Colonials’ coach said. “I don’t know if she realized how good a player she is because she’s always been overshadowed by a lot of players who have a lot of stats.
“She was always skilled. She really has always done her job well. She has good hand-eye coordination. This year she stepped up into more of a center back and is more central, and she has a role on corners. She doesn’t have a ton of stats, but she definitely gets the job done. She’s a defender who has attacking ability, so that makes her a fun player to watch and coach.”
*****
Fun is a word that often comes up when Truong’s name is mentioned, and it’s easy to understand why. Fun is apparently a requirement for the senior captain.
With her team in the midst of a district playoff run, Truong came up with a new team pet (the Colonials already had an unofficial team pet – a hamster named Nibbles that belonged to a fellow defender).
“My AP bio teacher had fish in her room, and I was taking one home,” Truong said. “I said, ‘This is our new team pet.’ His name is Milk, so everyone was saying whether Nibbles or Milk would make it out farther.
“I was really excited to take care of the fish, I can’t lie, but I came home from practice and Milk passed away (four hours after arriving), so Nibbles is the team pet. We’re hoping Nibbles lasts.”
If a fish named Milk sounds a bit quirky, it pales in comparison to the blue coyote robe (girls’ size 10 or 12) passed down to her from her sister when she was in middle school that is still very much a part of Truong’s life and accompanies her to night games.
“I wanted to warm up in it, but coach said no, so it stays on the bench,” Truong said with a laugh. “I can wear it off the bus.
“Freshman year I remember for the playback game I wore the robe on the bench. I didn’t get playing time, so I sat on the end of the bench in my blue robe.”
Truong hasn’t spent time on the bench the last three years. She has been a fixture in the defensive backfield. Strange as it sounds, she’s had her sights set on a stint in goal.
“One of the big jokes is that I always want to play goalie,” Truong said. “I just want to try it at practice or a game, and our coaches never will let me, so sometimes I just stand in goal during drills, and, of course, the forwards aren’t going to shoot on me, so the coaches will be like, ‘Liv get out of the goal.’
“I always dream as a defender – I obviously don’t want to do this - of making one of those really cool defensive saves where you dive on the ground and stop the ball. I always take our goalie’s hand pads and stick, and I’ll just dive on the ground and get major turf burn, and I’ll just get the feeling. I’m like, ‘I want to do this just once and make a really nice save.’ I ready to be a dynamic goalie, but they said they need me on the field, so I was like, ‘Okay.’”
*****
Truong describes herself as an ‘unathletic child,’ and she had a less than promising start to her field hockey career in second grade.
“I joined the Colonial Field Hockey Club because I wanted to copy my sister Emma,” she said. “I cried during the first practice, and my mom had to take me home early.
“My mom was like, ‘You’re going back next practice.’ I really didn’t want to, but after that I assimilated pretty well. I liked it a lot more when it was on my terms of coming. I don’t remember it ever being hard, I remember going to practice and learning. It helped that my sister was older, so she helped me get better.”
Once Truong began playing hockey, she never stopped. As a freshman she joined the Philly Hockey Club. It’s been a love affair that looks like it won’t end anytime soon.
“I came into senior year applying to colleges thinking I wouldn’t play field hockey,” Truong said. “I would just apply for my education program which would be physician’s assistant programs.
“But then I realized maybe I don’t want to just focus on education. My sister is in a sorority, and I don’t think I want to do that, so I figured I’d stick with a sport I’ve done for so long.”
Truong hasn’t ruled out Hofstra and is also considering Temple.
“My whole family goes there, and they have a club team, so I would definitely join that,” she said.
Truong came by her interest in the medical profession honestly – her mother is a pharmacist at Jefferson Methodist Hospital.
“I volunteer at her hospital during the summer,” she said. “My mom wanted me to be a pharmacist, but after volunteering there, I was like, ‘No,’ and she gave me the opportunity to shadow other professions, so I got to shadow a nurse, I got to shadow a physician, a surgeon.
“I don’t know why – I really like the PA. They have independence, so they can prescribe medications, they can treat patients. They’re part of a team, so there’s an attending physician. I liked that aspect of it.”
An excellent student, Truong’s course load includes three AP classes with the remaining honors classes. She is a member of the National Honor Society, the steering committee for her class as well as Student Council.
These days, Truong’s focus is on field hockey. The Colonials not only advanced to the district title game but also earned a berth in the state tournament for the first time since 2004.
“It hasn’t hit me that we’ll be playing past Halloween,” she said. “I haven’t had a Halloween practice since freshman year.”
It’s hardly a surprise to hear Halteman acknowledge that Truong is a pleasure to coach.
“Obviously, she’s athletic, which is always enjoyable to help somebody get better in this sport,” Halteman said. “Every day she brings energy, she has fun with what she’s doing, and being part of this team is clearly important to her. Those are the athletes you just love to coach because you know the time and effort as a coach you’re putting in – it matters to an athlete like Liv.
“She wants to be a better field hockey player, she loves the sport, she also enjoys being part of something bigger than herself. That’s why she may be considering playing in college because she likes being part of a team. She has a lot to offer. She’s a really fun high school athlete, and it’s fun to be a part of her life.”
