School: William Tennent
Field Hockey, Wrestling, Softball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Going to the second round of playoffs with the Tennent field hockey team
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: My first wrestling match when I almost tripped going out onto the mat.
Music on iPod: Every genre imaginable, but most rap and pop.
Future plans: Sports administration
Words to live by: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
One goal before turning 30: To go skydiving and get my mom into a Ferris Wheel (she’s afraid of heights).
One thing people don’t know about me: That I have a tendency to over-think things a lot and get myself confused and frustrated, usually about really simple things.
William Tennent’s Kirsten Doherty is described by her high school field hockey coach as ‘that All-American girl you can always rely on for everything.’
“If I could have 11 Kirstens on the field and have that motivation just to always strive to do better – you can teach girls how to drive a ball, you can teach girls how to do a dodge, but not everybody has that motivation that comes from within,” field hockey coach Kate Wyatt said. “She definitely does.”
Doherty was a four-year starter in goal for a Tennent field hockey squad that has shown marked improvement and advanced to the district tournament in each of the last two seasons. She is also the starting shortstop for her high school softball team in the spring. Now that the winter sports’ season is underway, Doherty spends her time working out with her high school wrestling team.
Yes, Doherty wrestles.
And it was her fiercely competitive spirit that sent the Tennent senior to the mats when she was a sophomore.
“I was friends with people on the wrestling team, and they said, ‘You would never survive. You couldn’t do it,’” Doherty recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, really?’
“One day I decided I was going to do it, and I did it.”
And she has done it.
Last year, Doherty finished second in the U.S. Girls’ Wrestling Association state competition in her weight class. This year, she has a loftier goal.
“I haven’t beaten a guy yet, but that’s my goal this year,” she said. “I’m going to win one.”
At least one person won’t be surprised if she does.
“Kirsten has that intrinsic motivation to be better,” Wyatt said. “There are some athletes who have that athletic way of thinking ingrained in them, and it’s part of them. She totally has it, and it actually comes out whenever she plays.”
Doherty has been competing in sports for as long as she can remember and began playing soccer, softball and baseball at a young age.
“Ever since I was little, I always had a ball near me,” she said.
In seventh grade, Doherty was introduced to the sport of field hockey.
“I learned it in gym class, and I really liked it,” she said. “That was the first I ever heard of it.”
She went out for her middle school team, and when her coach asked for a volunteer to go into the goal cage, Doherty volunteered.
“No one raised their hand, so I raised mine,” she said. “I was like, ‘I will. I’ll try it,’ and it stuck. Once I got in the pads, I got attached to them almost.
“I enjoy it. You have a whole team playing with you – you get to watch them play and learn how they play, and you become very close with your defense. They have to rely on you, but you have to rely on them at the exact same time.”
Doherty’s athleticism is a tremendous asset in the cage, and as a ninth grader, she earned an immediate spot in the starting lineup for the varsity.
“I have known her for four years, and the amount she has progressed since she first came onto the squad is so great,” Wyatt said. “It seems as though every game and every practice she just kept getting better and better and better.”
The Panthers struggled during her freshman and sophomore years but led by Doherty and fellow captain and four-year starter Kelsey Hiltebeitel, the program began its turnaround.
“I would get discouraged, I won’t lie,” she said of the Panthers’ lean years. “At points you get frustrated, and it’s hard at times.”
Last year, the Panthers earned a berth in districts, and after a slow start this year, they finished strong and earned a return trip to districts where they advanced to the second round. A highlight of their season was a 1-0 overtime win over National Conference champion Council Rock North.
“They made it to the second round of states, and to say we beat them felt good,” Doherty said.
Doherty is a natural in the cage, and Wyatt recalls a dazzling save her senior captain made in Tennent’s 3-2 win over Spring-Ford in an opening round district game.
“The shot was to the upper right corner, and I don’t know how she was able to move her hand that fast and get up off the ground, but it was an amazing save,” Wyatt said. “I think we were so surprised that it wasn’t a beautiful goal, and when she came off the field, she said ‘I have no idea how I saved that.’”
Doherty closed out the regular season with three straight shutouts, and Wyatt points to Doherty and Hiltebeitel – co-MVPs this season - as the catalysts for her team’s recent success.
“I know there are 11 girls playing at once, but when you have two such strong components - that can make a difference,” Wyatt said. “There are nine other girls on the team, but it was the way they all meshed together – the way Kelsey took control of the defense and Kirsten was so powerful in the cage.
“When those two got together and worked together, it was great.”
Doherty also has been a varsity starter for the softball team since she was a sophomore, and although she is a natural shortstop, her versatility is underscored by the fact that – at one time or another – she has played all nine positions on the diamond.
“I’ve pitched, but I’m not the best pitcher,” she said. “I love shortstop – it’s a real interactive spot, and I love having the ball in softball.
“I love softball - that and field hockey.”
While she is passionate about hockey and softball, Doherty relishes the challenge that wrestling affords her, and it wasn’t long before she gained the acceptance of her teammates.
“It took them seeing I was going to work hard and seeing that I wasn’t going to quit after a week or two before they accepted me on the team,” she said. “After they accepted me, I was like another person on the team.
“My coaches tell me all the time – I’m not a girl in that room. I’m a wrestler.”
That means Doherty must go through the same rigorous training as the other wrestlers on the team.
“For practice, we run a two-mile warm-up,” she said. “Then we go into practice and run some more. We drill a lot. You kind of learn how to dish it out and take it.
“A lot of practice is running. You just have to be in the best condition. I can say wrestlers at William Tennent will be the most in-shape kids in the school in winter.”
Although Doherty extended one of her opponents for the full three rounds and only lost by two or three points, she has yet to win a jayvee match against a boy.
“As a girl in a guys’ sport, you have to get used to it,” she said. “You just have to try your hardest.”
Doherty laughs when she recalls her first jayvee match as a sophomore.
“It was against Truman, and it was against a guy that had a tattoo,” she said. “I was so scared, I can’t lie. I was so nervous.
“I remember telling one of the managers that I was going to trip when I got on the mat. Sure enough – I got on the mat and I stumbled. It’s like one of those things you see in the movies – oh that poor awkward little girl walking out there.
“I think I got pinned in the first period, but you have to start somewhere.”
Doherty wrestled at 145 with the jayvee as a sophomore, and she continues to wrestle in that weight class for the jayvee.
“I get tons of weird responses,” she admits.
And what keeps her going back to the mats?
“It’s hard to explain because it’s really hard, and it’s extremely difficult to maintain your weight and make it through practices, but I like the sport,” she said. “Everyone thinks it’s strength, but it’s really not. A lot of it is really technique and the way you can do things.”
Doherty would like to continue either her hockey or softball careers at the collegiate level, and her top three college choices are Temple, Lock Haven and West Chester. When it comes to a major, she is deciding between sports administration and psychology.
Whatever she does, it’s a safe bet Doherty will take that same competitive drive she has always shown in the athletic arena into every area of her life. It undoubtedly will serve her well.
