Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Kevin Durant
Favorite team: Team USA
Favorite memory competing in sports: Doing my first triathlon.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In my first swim meet ever when I was nine years old, I was supposed to swim butterfly but swam freestyle and was disqualified.
Music on iPod: Field hockey mix
Future plans: Graduate from college, leave my mark in my area of study
Words to live by: “Everything happens for a reason.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Africa
One thing people don’t know about me: I have an interest in astronomy and have seen shooting stars, lunar eclipses and a rocket that is currently on the moon.
By Mary Jane Souder
Sierra Spencer won’t find her name in the headlines.
But that’s just fine with the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior. It turns out Spencer is quite comfortable wearing the mantle of unsung hero for a Colonials’ field hockey team that finds itself atop the SOL American Conference standings at the midway point of the season.
“She’s a kid that’s just there for us every day,” coach Marianne Paparone said. “She’s always at practice, always taking care of the little things.
“She gets along with everyone. You kind of don’t notice her sometimes, which is kind of a disservice. At the same time, you’re like – where would we be without her?”
With Spencer anchoring a young and inexperienced defense at sweeper, the Colonials have allowed just nine goals in 10 games this season. Playing the role of sweeper – the last line of defense before the goalie – was a new experience for Spencer.
“At first I wasn’t really excited to be back there because I always looked at it as a position for the least skilled defender,” she said. “But after playing it, I realize how much pressure is actually on the sweeper, and I have a greater respect for the position. It’s a lot of pressure.”
And Spencer, according to her coach, is the ideal player to handle that pressure.
“At the beginning of the season, I just started putting her there, and I never really had a talk beforehand that this is where I wanted to play her or why I wanted to play her there,” Paparone said. “She’s a thinker, and she wandered over one day and said – what are the qualifications to play sweeper?
“I said, ‘You have to be consistent, you have to be a good decision maker, you have to be a good communicator, and you have to be ready to take risks and learn from mistakes.’ Everything I said was describing Sierra, and I wasn’t even attempting to do that, so it’s kind of been a perfect position for her.
“She’s been probably our most consistent player. She has a good game every game. She does what we need her to do every game.”
Spencer is a ‘thinker’ off the field as well.
A semifinalist in the prestigious 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program, she boasts a weighted GPA of 4.98 and, according to her coach, has never received anything less than an A.
“She’s a phenomenal student,” Paparone said.
Spencer is taking a full course load of nothing but AP classes this semester, four in all, and by the time she graduates, she will have taken eight AP classes.
How does she manage?
“I think some of my best time management is during field hockey because that way when I get home I’m facing a lot of homework instead of coming home and knowing I have time to do homework and possibly have some extra time,” she said. “I also think the most important thing is that field hockey is a really good stress reliever, and it gives me some time off from my day when I don’t have to be thinking about school.
“When I’m on the field, that’s not something I’m thinking about, and that’s one of the aspects I really like the most.”
Spencer has been playing sports since she was a youngster and tried her hand at soccer, basketball, swimming, softball and lacrosse. She joined the hockey team by default when she was cut from the middle school soccer team.
“It was devastating at the time because soccer was something I had played for a long time,” Spencer said. “But looking back on it, it’s one of the things I’m most glad happened the way that it did.”
Spencer went through the ranks and has been a varsity starter the past two years. Last year, the Colonials uncharacteristically finished in fifth place in the conference standings.
“Last year our coach had taken a year off,” Spencer said of Paparone. “I think we could have been better, and that’s what is most frustrating about it, knowing if we had been pushed harder to work during practice we could have beaten some of the teams we lost to.
“One of the most frustrating things last year was not making playoffs. We have a tradition of doing that, and my coach who is back this year had many years of playoffs, so that was really frustrating.”
The Colonials will most certainly be advancing to the postseason playoffs this season, and a conference championship is within their grasp.
“I wasn’t really expecting it,” Spencer said of her team’s strong showing. “So it’s been a surprise, but it’s also been really fun.
“I think the fact that we weren’t expecting it is what has allowed us to achieve it. I think if we had gone into the season expecting to be on top, we wouldn’t have worked so hard in practice. I think having that mentality has really affected our ability to succeed.
“While it’s fun to be winning so much, one of the things our team has focused on is not allowing that to get to our heads and not thinking that now that we’re winning we don’t have to work so hard against some of our opponents.”
It’s that levelheaded approach, according to Paparone, that sets Spencer apart.
“She’s always been very mature,” the Colonials’ coach said. “She’s always been a thinker. She’s a kid you love to coach because when you tell her something, she really takes it in – it makes sense to her, and she uses it.
“She’s not an excitable kid. She’s very low key, very composed and very mature. When I talk to her, I don’t feel like I’m talking to a kid. I feel like I’m talking to a peer because she’s so mature, and she just handles it. Whatever you tell her to do, it’s done. Not a second thought. She’s more responsible than a lot of the adults I know and more trustworthy than some of the adults I know.”
Playing hockey is just one small piece of Spencer’s life. She is secretary of the National Honor Society. She participates in the Science Olympiad and is a member of Student Government and the Spanish Club. She is on the Principal’s Advisory Council, a group of students that meet with the principal once a month to discuss concerns and find solutions.
For the past two years, she has volunteered at the Whitemarsh Art Center, serving as an assistant in the kids’ art classes.
Spencer’s list of colleges is an impressive one and includes Swarthmore, Haverford, Amherst, Georgetown and Brown. She is undecided on a major.
“A lot of my schools are liberal arts, and that will give me an opportunity to explore the majors I want to pursue,” she said. “I know after taking a lot of the classes I have, especially AP Chemistry last year, I developed a strong interest in science, so that might be something I’m interested in taking classes in to see if that’s something I want to major in.”
Spencer hopes hockey will be part of her future, but that depends on her college choice. For now, she’s enjoying her final high school season with good friends she admits she wouldn’t have had if she hadn’t been cut from soccer and opted to play hockey instead.
“She’s very genuine, very well liked,” Paprone said. “She’s pleasant, she’s positive, and she’ very humble.”
And without fanfare, she’s made important contributions to the success of this year’s hockey squad.
