School: Wissahickon
Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Chris Pronger
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Going undefeated in league play and making it to states with my field hockey team this past year.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “My lacrosse team’s dance-offs!”
Music on iPod: “A mixture of everything.”
Future plans: “I will be attending Bloomsburg University to play field hockey and lacrosse while majoring in Sports Science.”
Words to live by: “Never settle for less than your best.”
One goal before turning 30: “To travel around Europe”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I used to sail competitively, and now I just sail for fun during the summer.”
Try to defend Aubrey Bossert on the lacrosse field, and her speed and skill just might leave you speechless.
You'd be in good company. Wissahickon's senior midfielder often has the same effect on her coach.
"After the game I usually sit with the varsity team and we go over what you did right, and what you’re going to fix for the next game," said Wissahickon's girls lacrosse coach Jamie Donahue. "And I think it was after one of our PW games, I was like, 'Aubrey, I really don’t have anything to say to you.'
"She does so many things right. We always say, no one on this team is a professional, and there’s always room for improvement, but with her, it’s really hard to find something that she can work on."
Not that Bossert's game didn't need a little work coming into the season. So what did she need to work on? Her stickwork? Her checking? Her shooting?
Would you believe ... her volume?
"Before her senior year, I told Aubrey, 'I really need you to get louder,'" Donahue said. "She really stepped up her game in terms of being a vocal leader as well as a leader by example."
And when it comes to leading by example, there are few better role models for underclassmen. The tri-captain already has amassed quite a list of feats at Wissahickon -- she's a two-time team MVP, two-time team scoring leader and two-time First Team All-League selection. As a junior, she was an Academic All-American.
"It’s hard to pick one part of her game that’s better than the others," Donahue said. "There are so many parts of her game that are top notch. She’s fast as a bullet, and she’s tiny, so it’s hard to get that impression of her when you play her.
“Her speed is unmatched, I haven’t see any team shut down her speed when we played them. She has stickhandling skills, she can score, get a ground ball, she can win the draw..."
She's pretty good with a field hockey stick, too.
In the fall, Bossert was named First Team All-League and the Suburban One American Conference Player of the Year as a defender on the Trojans' conference-champion field hockey team that advanced to the District One semifinals and the PIAA state tournament.
But natural talent and speed can only take an athlete so far. The rest takes dedication, the drive to improve, the need to be the best, and the desire to see herself and her team be successful.
"I always try to push myself as hard as I can in practice, and when we go for runs, I push myself," Bossert said. "I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of this team and to play with these girls. I look forward to practice every single day.
“If you love something, I feel like you’ll put your heart into it, so it helps improve your playing level, and having the support of your teammates and everyone around you gives you more confidence."
It's for those teammates that Bossert gives her all. And it's why she's gutting it out through a nagging injury. Bossert recently had a bone scan on her right ankle and left shin to search for a possible stress fracture, the result of constant running during field hockey and lacrosse seasons.
But until a doctor tells her not to, you can expect to see Bossert out on the field.
"I try not to let injuries bother me, I try to go through anything," she said. "I’m not one of the people to speak up if I’m injured unless it’s pretty bad. It slows you down a little, but in the end you want to win the game and put everything you have into it. So you don’t let your injuries bother you."
"I hope the (underclassmen) look to that and see her as an inspiration," Donahue said. "They are just now finding out about (her injury), which is a testament to Aubrey and her toughness."
That toughness, and that drive to succeed, follows Bossert into the classroom, where she is a member of the National Honor Society. She has earned an academic scholarship to Bloomsburg University, where she plans on majoring in exercise science with an eye on remaining involved in sports once she graduates.
She'll also be playing both field hockey and lacrosse for the Huskies. The chance to play both sports was a major reason why Bossert picked Bloomsburg. So was the chance to play with a familiar face that had just committed to the school -- her twin sister and field hockey and lacrosse teammate Ashley.
"I don’t think we ever had in mind to go to the same school," Aubrey said. "It was actually kind of funny -- when we ended up narrowing it down to our top five schools, we had the same five schools. As we narrowed it down to three and two, we were narrowing it down to the same schools. She decided a month before me she was going to Bloomsburg.
"I couldn’t decide which sport I wanted to play, and when I realized I could play both at Bloomsburg, it was definitely an eye-opener for me. And I really liked the players on the team. I could see myself there."
But before she heads off to college, Bossert, her twin sister, and the five other seniors on the Trojans' lacrosse team have some unfinished business. Wissahickon sits in second place in the American Conference, with only two losses on the ledger, both coming to undefeated neighborhood rival Upper Dublin.
The Trojans finished the regular season with an 18-7 win over Upper Moreland (a victory in which Bossert contributed six goals and three assists) and are looking to making a postseason run and pulling out a couple of games against the highly touted Main Line teams.
"I would love to make it to the second round of playoffs," Bossert said. "We made it to the first round last year, and it had been a long time since we made it to playoffs. If we’re able to make it past the first round it would be really exciting."
No matter how the Trojans' season ends, though, Bossert plans on leaving everything out on the field, and leaving with no regrets ... only fond memories.
"This has been an amazing season, definitely one I’ll remember the rest of my life," she said. "The seniors, I’ve been playing with those girls since sixth grade when I started. I'm sad to be leaving, and I'm going to really miss this team and being part of it. It's going to be hard to go, but I'm excited to move on and go to Bloomsburg and play in college."
