Field hockey
Favorite athlete: Nick Castellanos
Favorite teams: Phillies and Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the league title and competing in States my freshman and sophomore seasons.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: On the way to our district playoff game against Downingtown West, our bus got lost and went up this steep, curvy mountain that turned out to be someone’s driveway. We were stuck for over an hour.
Favorite music: Pitbull and Eminem
Future plans: Play D1 field hockey at Colgate University and double major in Computer Science and Physics.
Words to live by: “Pressure is a privilege.”
One goal before turning 30: Invent something and be granted a US patent.
One thing people don't know about me: I won second place in a pie baking contest on Pi Day for my pecan pie recipe. `
By Mary Jane Souder
Julia Blair is passionate about field hockey
Nothing unusual about that.
But talk to the Souderton senior, and it’s clear – she doesn’t see the sport through quite the same lens as most.
“I’ve been around field hockey as long as I can remember,” Blair said. “Even when I’m on the field or I’m watching the JV game, I like to study it, so I view it less as a sport and more as a cause and reaction - an equal opposite reaction. It’s something we’re doing in physics right now actually, and it just makes sense.
“And just watching it so much, you start to understand where people are going to move, and you understand your teammates in a way that you really jell together. I see it as an academic thing almost. It happens because of this, and it works this way because of that. It’s always been interesting to me. I love academics.”
So, while seniors with enough credits to graduate sometimes choose to coast through their final year of high school, Blair has taken the opposite approach, packing her schedule with five AP classes and two dual enrollment classes through Montgomery County Community College.
All of this in preparation for a double major of computer science and physics when she enrolls at Colgate University where she will continue her field hockey career at the Division 1 level.
“I always knew I wanted to play field hockey in college, but academics was a really big thing for me,” Blair said. “It was – I want to play field hockey in college, but academics comes first.”
When it came time to choose a college, Colgate and Johns Hopkins were her two finalists.
“I was going back and forth between the two because they are both academically rigorous, but ultimately, Colgate – the campus and the people – they had my heart,” said Blair, who committed last spring. “I went on my official visit at Colgate, and I just loved it up there so much.
“The campus was beautiful, everyone on the team was so inviting. It was just the perfect environment to me, and I found the academics were really what I wanted. It just seemed like a perfect fit.
The fact that Blair set high goals and then reached them is no surprise to her field hockey coach.
“She just has an amazing work ethic” Souderton coach Sue Casciato said. “And she’s very smart. She’s usually on the sideline between games or on the bus with her laptop open, and the other day she was tutoring a bunch of people in physics - other kids had their homework out, and she was talking them through it.
“She works really hard at everything. I’m assuming she’s naturally an athlete, I’m assuming she’s naturally a good student, but even if she wasn’t either of those things, she would have made herself those things.”
Field hockey from the start
Blair is the middle of three siblings - older brother James attends Lehigh University and younger brother Logan is a freshman at Souderton. She has been playing field hockey for almost as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t her only sport.
“My parents were both athletic, so they grew up in sports,” she said of Edward Blair and Christine Blair. “I have been in field hockey since I was five, so it’s been a long time.
“I grew up doing basketball, field hockey, cheerleading, soccer, lacrosse – basically everything.
“What stuck with me – I played hockey basketball and softball all the way through middle school, but going into high school, I decided to specialize more and really focus on field hockey.”
Why field hockey?
“I have been doing club hockey since I was very young, and the people I met in club field hockey and the coaches I had really made me love the sport,” said Blair, who has been with Souderton Strikers from the outset. “I was always just naturally into it. My mom used to play it, and she always made it fun. It had a special place in my heart.”
A four-year varsity player, Blair doesn’t typically find herself in the spotlight. But that’s just fine with the senior captain, who has 20 assists and six goals this season.
“I believe that a goal and an assist are equally important – one doesn’t happen without the other,” she said. “Last year, I embraced a direct scoring role when we had a younger team.
“However, many of our younger players have truly stepped up and grown up a lot. This gave me a great opportunity to step into more of a facilitator role this year, focusing on getting assists from the midfield and helping the team in any way I can. In the end, all that matters is getting the ball in goal – not who gets it there.”
Blair is the Indians striker on penalty corners.
“She’s the striker, and Ava (Jones) is on the pads tipping it in – coincidentally, Ava has 19 goals, mostly on corner tip-ins,” Casciato said. “Julia’s stickwork is excellent. A lot of people have a hard drive, but she has a very short backswing. Everything is very compact.
“Even if you have a quick flyer, very rarely does she get denied an opportunity. She has nice quick hands. Because she’s really perfected her technique, she doesn’t need that big back swing. She scares everybody because she can hit the heck out of the ball.”
For the past two years, Blair – who initially played in the defensive backfield - has occupied the center midfield position.
“I’ve been so lucky because at that center mid – Ang Borisow was before her and Lauren Kenah was before that,” Casciato said. “She’s just another one of them. She covers the entire field.
“As a sophomore, she was my center back because that’s the year Ashley Paturzo tore her ACL.”
And it was those leaders who were an inspiration to Blair.
“I’ve gotten to witness amazing leaders – Lauren Kenah, Ang Borisow and Ashley Paturzo, and I think just learning how they were able to be such great leaders on the field really helped me develop into the player I am,” she said. “That is probably the biggest thing I learned being on the team.”
Casciato is hoping her underclassmen will follow in Blair’s footsteps.
“There is nobody like her at finding that second wind or extra gear when you have to have that little burst of speed,” the Indians’ coach said. “She can be so exhausted, but she can still find it. A lot of players don’t have that gear. She’s going to be able to take that extra step or make that extra lunge or just sometimes be able to extend your stick six inches further just because she’s trying so hard.”
At 5-5, Blair is hardly an imposing figure on the hockey field.
“She’s pretty banged up all the time just because she’s working so hard,” Casciato said. “Her body takes a pounding.
“I worry about her overtraining. I saw her a couple of times in the summer, and she’s out running. I’m like, ‘Julia, I want you in shape, but you have to start the season with fresh legs because I know how hard you’re going to work. You’re going to run twice as far as anybody else in any game, and by the middle of the season, you’ll have a bad knee or a bad hip.’”
Blair insists she doesn’t mind the physicality.
“I’m not tall, but I spend a lot of time in the weightlifting gym, so I feel that gives me the confidence to go into these situations against bigger players than me because I know I’m strong enough to handle it,” she said. “Being the center mid puts you in the center of things, so there’s always people clashing on you, so it’s just holding your base and being able to get through it.
“You take hits some games, but you also deliver some, so it’s give and take.”
Off the field
Just as she excels on the hockey field, Blair also excels in the classroom where she boasts a 5.0 GPA.
She credits her interest in computer science to her computer programming teacher, Michael Olenick.
“I’ve been taking computer programming classes since sophomore year, and my computer programming teacher is really amazing, and he kind of developed this passion for it in me where I was able to solve things with code, and I was able to create things that were my own,” Blair said. “I’m taking AP Physics this year, and I think the two marry together really well because my goal is to go into the innovation field, and if I want to be able to design something and build something on my own – I think that understanding the real world and understanding technology and where the world is going gives me a solid base in order to create something.”
Blair is a member of Souderton’s athletic leadership council.
“That’s a great opportunity to be able to talk with some of our fellow athletes about leadership and develop our abilities,” she said.
She is also involved with Souderton’s Interact Club, a community service/outreach club.
“This year I’m helping organize the veteran’s brunch which I’ve worked on the past four years, which is very special,” Blair said.
She takes special pride in being part of the Teach Girls Tech Club.
“We bring STEM to the middle schools, and we help get girls involved in technology and science and math, which I love,” Blair said.
With a schedule that would overwhelm most, the Souderton senior possesses remarkable discipline.
“This year, I’m very fortunate – I have senior privilege,” she said. “When I have games and practices, I have designated time where I’m going to lock in. I put my phone away, I do my work, and I get everything done.
“Then I have times when I’m not working and I make sure I allocate those time blocks so I don’t get burned out because I need to work hard when I’m working hard, but I also need to be able to rest and recover. Field hockey is a mental break, studying is a physical break, so they even out.”
Blair is coming down the home stretch of her final high school hockey season.
“I’ve really gotten to bond with a lot of my teammates, and it’s so bittersweet coming to the end,” she said. “I’m really proud of what this team’s been able to do this past season, which makes it a little bit easier because we’re going to be leaving here hopefully with no regrets.
“If we put everything we have out on the field, although it will be difficult to say good-bye to the team, I think I’ll be able to say good-bye because we put everything on the field. And because I’m very excited about moving to college hockey, but I will miss what I’m leaving behind.”
Blair – according to Souderton athletic director Dennis Stanton - will be difficult to replace.
“Julia embodies the ideals and characteristics of an incredible student-athlete,” the Souderton AD said. “Her work ethic is outstanding, and she has earned all the positive recognition that she has received.
“Julia really committed herself to the process of self-improvement, and it has truly paid off. We will definitely miss her next year, but I am excited to see her continued success at Colgate University.”
