Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Mia Hamm
Favorite team: Notre Dame
Favorite memory competing in sports: This took place this season, when we won against Springfield, and I scored the winning goal.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I went to go to the bathroom before a competition, and I accidently locked myself in, because the door locked shut. Security had to come to break down the door in the bathroom to get me out.”
Music on iPod: A mix of country, popular hits and rap
Future plans: I am verbally committed to play lacrosse at Division One Mount St. Mary’s University, and I am interested in playing club field hockey as well.
Words to live by: “Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her.” –Mia Hamm
One goal before turning 30: Have a special education teaching job and coaching both field hockey and lacrosse.
One thing people don’t know about me: I am missing one organ: my appendix.
By Mary Jane Souder
Patty Kovacs stops herself in mid-sentence as she’s describing Wissahickon senior Marie Dickson.
“I don’t want to say positive again,” the Trojans’ lacrosse coach said.
It’s apparently next to impossible to talk about Dickson without overusing that word.
“She’s always so positive,” Wissahickon field hockey coach Lucy Gil said. “I think what separates her from everyone else – she’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in my whole life.
“I’ve never heard a mean thing come out of her mouth, and when she hears a mean thing, she changes the subject. She is really a quality person, and it just oozes out of her so naturally. She doesn’t have to try. You talk to her and she’s genuinely sweet and just a good person. It’s really nice to have that kind of person around.”
“She always has a positive and outgoing personality,” Kovacs added. “She just gets the team going. Last year she was a junior, so we did have our captains already, but she still helped with the morale and the positivity of the team.”
While that’s certainly high praise, there’s so much more.
The Wissahickon senior – the very definition of a student-athlete - excels on the hockey and lacrosse field and will be continuing her lacrosse career at the Division One level at Mount St. Mary’s University (Md.). She is an Academic All-American, and outside of the athletic arena, Dickson is the senior class president, the editor of the yearbook, and is a member of the National German Honor Society.
While Dickson boasts a dazzling resume, her coaches keep going back to the intangibles that set her apart.
“Her demeanor changes this team,” Gil said. “We’re not that different from last year. We didn’t graduate a million seniors or anything, and yet the whole demeanor of this team is different because of her.
“I just feel that her influence on the team is more than just that’s she one of the best players on the team. It’s what she brings to the team, how she brings them together to be better. It’s really palpable.”
Ask Dickson about her positive approach to life, and she pauses before answering.
“I’ve been an underclassman (on the varsity), and it’s intimidating and scary,” she said. “To keep motivated, you need to have somebody who’s pushing you but at the same time staying positive.
“You hear enough negativity – you might as well hear positivity, and I always reinforce that. It really helps improve your game too when you hear positives.”
With all her activities, it’s a wonder Dickson actually has time for sports, but she manages to keep her busy schedule straight in a somewhat unorthodox manner for a teenager.
“I mainly use my old-fashioned agenda book,” she said. “I don’t use (the calendar in my phone) because I always forget it. It always rings, but I’m always so busy doing other things that I can’t ever see it.
“I usually write down literally everything in a book. That’s what keeps me most sane because with all my school stuff, I’m definitely looking at it.”
Sports have been part of the picture for Dickson for as long as she can remember. WRA soccer came first when she was four or five and that was followed in first grade by lacrosse and field hockey. Both would become her passions.
“Because field hockey and lacrosse were both in the spring when I was younger, I would always be running from one field to the next on Sundays when I had both on the same day, but it was still so much fun,” Dickson said. “I liked soccer too, but I ended up sticking with field hockey.
“I loved it. It was so much faster, and I loved the fact that it was quicker passing – pass, pass, shoot – and a lot of team effort. That’s why I chose field hockey and lacrosse.”
A four-year starter on the hockey field, the senior captain is an asset at any position.
“She’s a quiet player, but she’s very talented,” Gil said. “She plays right mid – that’s what she played last year too. The year before that she was right back. She likes the right side.
“She can play defense or offense, and she probably plays two or three positions every game. She’s very versatile.”
On the lacrosse field, Dickson – who has been a varsity player since she set foot on the field as a freshman - has found a home on the defensive end of the field.
“She’s a key team player,” Kovacs said. “She’s very flexible, she will play in any position, and she’s strong in every position, which is great for any team.
“She’s a leader on the team as well because she is so flexible and can work with anyone. I see her at hockey and I talk to her about this year because she’s that go-to person. She’s a very determined person, very determined. She wants to win, she will offer suggestions on the field, and it’s always very constructive criticism when she offers it.”
When it came time to choose between hockey and lacrosse, Dickson – who played both at the club level – struggled to decide, but she will have the best of both worlds.
“I picked lacrosse because I loved it in the air and how much faster it was, but at the same time, field hockey is just as scrappy and fast,” she said. “I just loved playing defense in lacrosse. It was a different dynamic.
“Field hockey still has a good place in my heart, and I’m going to play club at St. Mary’s, so I’m hoping to continue.”
If anyone can manage two sports, Dickson certainly can. She’s already has mastered the art of juggling a myriad of activities.
“I’m in the middle of doing yearbook, and it’s really kind of nice how yearbook and class president go hand in hand,” she said. “Since seniors are a huge part of the yearbook, I have a lot of insight into different senior events. I get to have the best of both worlds and help out each side by telling them what’s going on.”
Dickson takes time out of her busy schedule to work with special needs children. She is involved in Tennis Buddies and initiated an annual connection for the field hockey team with Athletes Helping Athletes. She visited Camp Geronimo, a camp that works with special needs children.
“I have two cousins who are autistic, and that helped inspire me to become a special ed teacher,” Dickson said. “Both of my cousins would go to (Camp Geronimo), and I really wanted to go and experience it.
“It was fascinating. The farm animals were so patient with all the kids, and it was just so cool to actually experience it.”
Dickson has her sights set on a career in special education and will be an internship – through social lab - that will take her into the classroom to work with children with special needs just to “make sure I like what I’m pursuing.”
According to her coaches, Dickson has a personality that will allow her to succeed in whatever career path she chooses.
“She’s a wonderful kid,” Kovacs said. “She’s got it all together.”
“She’s a sweetheart,” Gil added. “She’s super positive, and that kind of energy is really hard to come by.
“You can’t be sad around her or upset around her. It’s impossible.”
