Field-Hockey, Lacrosse
By Mary Jane Souder
The background wallpaper on Heather Whalin’s home computer is a photo capturing the moment Devon Mela – on her knees – is lofting the game-winning goal into the cage in Council North’s 1-0 win over Spring-Ford in a second round district field hockey game last fall.
Interestingly, the Rock North senior insisted that a teammate tipped it into the cage. Whalin’s photo tells a different story.
“I’m like, ‘No, sweetie, you scored,’” the Indians’ coach said.
Talk to Whalin or lacrosse coach Krista Dayton-Ventresca, and it’s a typical response by Mela, who is eager to give credit but almost reluctant to receive it.
“She’s a very humble player,” Dayton-Ventresca said. “She’s very quiet.
“She exemplifies the way you should approach anything – show up, work your hardest, and you get results because of it. She does have talent, but she shows up and she works hard.”
“She goes throughout life, and she does not need to be in the spotlight,” Whalin said. “She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight.
“Even when she scores a goal, she’ll come up and shrug her shoulders like, ‘Yes it went in.’ I’ll be like – ‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ It’s almost like that’s her job, and she knows that and she doesn’t make a big deal about it. She makes a bigger deal when other people score than when she scores.”
Add Mela’s selfless style of play to a tremendous work ethic, and you have the consummate team player and the perfect teammate.
“I have never heard one of her teammates say a mean thing about her – in the four years she’s been part of the program, no one,” Whalin said. “When kids come back to visit the program, they run right over to Devon because she’s that good soul.
“She comes from a great family – they’re super supportive of her. She’s always smiling. I haven’t ever seen her mad.”
Mela is a two-sport standout – a three-year varsity starter in field hockey and a four-year starter in lacrosse. Her numbers on the hockey field – 31 goals in three years – equate with players who are going on to play at a high collegiate level.
Mela has been one of the team’s top point producers in each of the last three lacrosse seasons and last year led the Indians in goals scored with 45, points (57) and draw controls (32). That standout junior year came on the heels of a sophomore season that saw her lead the teams in goals (51), assists (14) and ground balls (32). The senior standout has done all of this quietly and without fanfare.
“She’s just that kid that everyone misses except the ones who get it,” Whalin said. “Luckily, I got it and knew she was a huge part of the program the past four years.”
Dayton-Ventresca ‘gets it’ as well.
“Honestly, I can’t think of a practice she’s ever missed, and in this day and age, that’s priceless,” the Indians’ lacrosse coach said. “She's just rock solid, she really is.
“When I say she’s rock solid, rock steady, it’s because she’s always there, and she’s always working. Her nose is always to the grindstone.”
Coming as no surprise, Mela has found herself in a leadership role. She was a captain of last fall’s successful field hockey squad and was elected a two-year captain of her lacrosse team.
“She leads by example,” Dayton-Ventresca said. “She’s not a vocal leader, but she will pipe up here and there.
"As a teammate, Devon is respected and well liked."
“You have captains, and you have one who’s the rah rah,” Whalin said. “You have the one that’s a little bit mean but in a good way to give that kick in the butt.
“Devon’s the one that calms everything and just settles everyone. If someone is struggling, they might go talk to her. You can’t coach that. It’s just something inside of someone. She gets it, and she knows her role.”
Mela took the same traits to her position as captain that she brings to the practice field every day.
“I am quiet,” she said. “My role as a captain is – you lead your teammates by example and you help them out and encourage them on the field.
“I felt like last year being captain kind of influenced how I am captain now because last year there were still seniors above me that were not captains. As a younger captain telling older kids for me was a little hard to get my head around since I never did that.
“This year it’s a big change. Now there’s no one above me. I have three co-captains that are all juniors, so they’re probably feeling the same way. I’m still trying to figure out how to manage that.”
*****
Mela’s first competition came – not on the hockey or lacrosse field – but on the dance floor.
“I started dance when I was four and did it for seven years competitively,” she said. “Ballet, tap – all the different kinds.
“It was a lot of time - a bunch of days a week with practice, and I’d always be there. Then on weekends I’d have recitals or competitions that I’d go away for and come back and have school on Monday, so it was a lot.”
In fourth grade, Mela began playing basketball and softball, and the scheduling conflicts began. In fifth grade, she added playing lacrosse for Council Rock Lacrosse to her already full schedule. Dance fell by the wayside as did several of the sports.
“Two sports in the spring got hard, so I just started playing lacrosse,” Mela said.
In middle school, Mela began playing field hockey.
“As a kid, I just loved being outside playing and I never got a chance to do that,” she said. “I think that was why I wanted to try so many sports.
“Dance took up so much time, and I just didn’t really have a chance to try (sports) until I started playing basketball, and I loved it.”
Mela ultimately settled on field hockey and lacrosse, although she played basketball through her freshman year.
“I’ve had great coaches through high school and middle school,” she said. “I play midfield for both, so it was kind of the same thing.”
In seventh grade, Mela joined the club circuit for lacrosse, which by this time was her passion.
“Lacrosse was actually mentioned to me by one of my really good friends when I went to Catholic school,” she said. “She’s the one who kind of made me play.
“I wasn’t interested at first. When I got to the tryouts, I made the team, and I ended up loving it ever since. It’s just been my sport.”
An all-league and all-area perform in each of the last two seasons, it is Mela’s understanding of the game sets her apart.
“She has a very high lacrosse IQ,” Dayton-Ventresca said. “That’s not an easy thing to coach because it’s such an abstract concept – where to move so that you’re moving other people, so that someone else with the ball can do what she needs to do.
“She moves well off ball, she moves well with the ball, and she’s got an excellent finish. Defensively, she anticipates well. She’s tenacious going after ground balls. She’s just smart.”
Mela will continue her lacrosse career next year at Albright College. The senior midfielder caught the eye of coaches while playing for her Tri-State club squad.
“A bunch of coaches e-mailed me, and Albright was the one that constantly e-mailed me, and I finally went to the school and looked at it,” she said. “I ended up loving it.
“For a while sophomore and beginning of junior year, it was a big goal of mine to play in college, and I wanted to play possibly D-1 because I was so into it. As junior year went on, I started to have doubts about D-1 because I didn’t want that full-time commitment year round. I just thought it would be hard to focus on school as well, so I chose to look at the D-3 schools that were contacting me.”
Mela is a very good student who takes the same qualities she displays on the athletic field into the classroom. She works hard and gets good results.
Although she is undecided, Mela is looking at a possible biochemistry major with a minor in nutrition.
“I’d like to do something with the pharmaceutical business, making new drugs,” she said.
Life without Mela in the lineup will be decidedly different for both the field hockey and lacrosse teams next year.
“I think about next year and my seniors graduating, and I always forget that she’s graduating,” Whalin said. “I always think she’s a junior because you never knew what grade she was in because everybody loved her.
“It didn’t matter what grade you were in – she would talk to you and hang out with you. She’s going to be missed next year. She’s just fun, and she’s sweet. Every time something is going on in the circle, I always tend to find Devon. She’ll just be giggling and having a good time. She’s an observer, and that’s fun to watch. She gets it.”
