Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Bethany Hamilton
Favorite team: USA Field Hockey team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the league three years in a row!!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In middle school, I completely wiped out while running to the goal before the game. My teammates fell on the ground laughing.
Music on iPod: Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5, James Bay
Future plans: I am committed to play field hockey at the University of Scranton, and I plan to study Secondary Education for math.
Words to live by: “The pursuit to perfection is an empty journey, but a perfect effort produces greatness, excellence, and the extraordinary.” –Mike Moore
One goal before turning 30: Run a marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: I sleep walk when I travel, and I once tried to leave my hotel room at 3 in the morning to go to field hockey practice.
By Mary Jane Souder
Claire McAllister and teammate Victoria Byrne epitomize what being a team player is all about.
Granted, ‘team player’ is a phrase that’s thrown around loosely, but the Plymouth Whitemarsh seniors have lived out the team first concept every single day of the season this fall.
For three years, Byrne was the varsity starter in goal for the Colonials’ field hockey team, and during that same time span, McAllister – without a word of complaint – was in goal for the jayvee.
This year, coach Marianne Paparone found herself in a unique position.
“I’ve been doing this 25-plus years, and I’ve very rarely had two goalies the same year,” the Colonials’ coach said. “Usually, one or the other bails.
“I didn’t coach either one of them as freshmen, so when I came in, they were sophomores. Tori had already been the varsity goalie for a year, and she was definitely more experienced than Claire, but there was not a lot that separated them.
“I was always surprisingly pleased at how supportive they were of each other and continue to have been the next three years despite the fact that they were competing with one another. It’s really quite remarkable. You see it so infrequently.”
Paparone was faced with a difficult decision this fall.
“I went to them at the beginning of the season and said, ‘I don’t know what else to do because you’re pretty much the same. I can’t really distinguish between one or the other and say, ‘this one is this much better at this or that,’” she said. “They definitely are different, but there just wasn’t enough to separate them, and they both deserve to play.
“I can’t put both of them in at the same time, so we have literally split every game halfway through, and they rotate – one starts one game and the other one starts the next game. I have never done that before. It’s kind of unfair because they could probably both start for any other team in the league. They just happen to be in the same grade, and there’s nowhere else for me to put them.”
It’s hard to determine which is more remarkable – the fact that Byrne, a first team all-league selection last year, was willing to share time in the cage without hesitation or the fact that McAllister, languishing at the jayvee level despite aspirations to play collegiately, never complained, never considered quitting.
“During a game, they cheer for each other,” Paparone said. “Claire has been behind Tori for three years, and now the tables are turned because Tori is only getting half the time she used to get, but she is still so supportive of Claire. It is just so nice to see.
“They’re different kids with different friends, but they’ve always been so unselfish in terms of playing time, in terms of each other. It’s just unfortunately remarkable (to see that) in 2015.”
Talk to either one of them, and it’s clear that this rather unorthodox system works for both sides.
“Ever since freshman year, we both have the same motto,” McAllister said. “I’m going to try my hardest to get the starting spot over her, but if she gets it, I’ll be her biggest fan.
“I know she thinks the same way that I do. We support each other, we compete against each other. In practice, if I let in two goals in a drill, she wants to let in one and vice versa.
“At the same time, I was happy for her the past three years. Going into this year, I really think I improved a lot, and I wanted to show what I could do and show I could hold my own in goal as well.”
Talk to Byrne, and she credits McAllister for getting her start in field hockey.
“It started in seventh grade, she was the goalie, and she did chorus so she would miss some games and practice,” Byrne said. “They needed a goalie, and I said, ‘I’ll be the goalie.’”
Byrne opted to not play in eighth.
“Claire was like, ‘Come back, come back, and play in high school,’” Byrne said. “I played in ninth grade.
“We have been best friends, we support each other the whole time. She’s the one who pushed me, so why should she have to be benched her senior year. She wants to play in college, so now she’s pushing me, and I just got a (college) offer today. She’s the one who’s pushed me and has been so supportive. I think she deserves the time.”
“She’s really supportive of me,” McAllister said. “She always said over the years, ‘I wish you had more playing time.’
“She’s never been, ‘Oh, I want to start and play all 60 minutes.’ For something that’s such a hard situation for me to be in, it’s actually easy to deal with because she’s been very nice about it and coach Pap has been really nice about it.”
The story has a happy ending for both. While Byrne has just received an offer to play at the collegiate level, McAllister is committed to playing at the University of Scranton.
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McAllister has the unique distinction of being part of one four sets of triplets at PW. Shannon, Brendan and Claire grew up playing sports together, and although they remain close, each forged their own path. Shannon opted for track, Brendan is part of PW’s baseball and golf teams while Claire is passionate about field hockey.
“I started field hockey in fifth grade for CYO,” she said. “I really liked how it was different because it wasn’t necessarily if you’re fast, you’re good at it. There were a lot of skills to be learned.
“It was kind of my thing because my sister didn’t really like field hockey.”
McAllister volunteered to go in the cage in seventh grade when her team needed a goalie.
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to run, which is a misconception and my least favorite stereotype,” she said. “I like being a leader on the field, and I thought, at the time, I had more of a role than being a field player.
“I felt I had a pretty good knowledge of that game, and that’s something a goalie needs to know pretty well in order to tell people where to mark and all that kind of stuff. I really like being a vocal leader.”
McAllister has had an opportunity to use her leadership skills as a tri-captain of this year’s squad.
“Just having a kid who’s been on jayvee elected a captain is unusual,” Paparone said. “She’s a very organized kid, and she was my go-to person over the summer when we ordered workout gear.
“She’s a very genuine kid, and she’s very earnest. You don’t hear that word anymore, but she’s very earnest, very sincere, very genuine.”
McAllister takes her role as captain seriously.
“I was really excited because this summer I worked really hard,” she said. “I tried to plan a lot of workouts, and I would run every day.
“I always worked really hard going into the season, but I knew going into this year that being a leader is something I’d really like to do, and obviously, on the field, I’m a leader as a goalie. I knew I could do it, and I wanted to make sure my teammates would trust me and look up to me.”
Winning a championship this season – the third in three years – was especially sweet.
“My freshman year, we had such an unsuccessful season,” she said. “Ever since then, we’ve been playing for the people before us and the people after us because we want PW field hockey to be a legacy.”
McAllister will continue her hockey career at the University of Scranton, and she credits her coaches at PW as well as her goalie coach with her WC Eagles club team, Ali Harris, for taking her to the next level.
“It’s an intense club, it’s an intense environment,” she said. “She’s helped me understand the game better and have a better mental game. She’s transformed me as a player.”
Hockey is just one piece of McAllister’s busy life. An excellent student, she is a member of the National Honor Society and completed 20 hours of service for NHS, volunteering at the Gift of Love House, Heartland Hospice Center and the Special Olympics. She plans to major in secondary education for math.
Last January, McAllister – after hosting a student from Spain in September - spent three weeks in the country as part of her school’s foreign exchange program.
“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “It was really interesting to see a different culture and see someone who’s the same age as you, and they’re going through the same things as you but yet their life is so different than yours.
“I almost feel as though there's less pressure on them. Something someone had told me is that people from the US grow up faster. They're almost a kid longer, which is something people here might be missing sometimes.”
McAllister has served on the steering committee for her class as well as the student council. She has been on the principal’s advisory council and is a member of the school’s Interact Club, a community service club. She plays violin in the school orchestra and volunteers every Monday night at the Religious Education Program at her church.
Next week, McAllister and her teammates will be competing in the District One AAA Tournament, and it is the team-first approach of McAllister and Byrne that has helped make the season a memorable one.
“That’s been the key to our success because I’ve had kids buy into that team concept,” Paparone said. “They look at those two and see them as a shining example of what team is about, and the rest of them – they learn from them.
“Claire is just a good kid, waited her turn without complaining and was so unselfish. Now she deserves some recognition.
