Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Clay Matthews III
Favorite team: Green Bay Packers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Making the field hockey district playoffs my senior year!
Music on iPod: Carrie Underwood, Jack Johnson, Frank Sinatra, Phantom of the Opera, and Pop Music
Future plans: Graduate college with a business degree, travel abroad, and continue to incorporate athletics into my daily life.
Words to live by: “Choose Happiness”
One goal before turning 30: To have a successful and meaningful career
One thing people don’t known about me: I trip more than I would like to admit.
By Mary Jane Souder
Sarah Braza plays field hockey for all the right reasons.
The Central Bucks East senior isn’t a star. As a matter of fact, Braza – in her first year on the varsity - was a reserve off the bench for a successful East squad that finished second in the SOL Continental Conference and advanced to the second round of the District One AAA Tournament.
Braza’s reason for sticking with the sport is simple – she loves the game. It’s a theme that surfaces frequently when she talks about her hockey career at East.
“I love cheering on my teammates, and I love when I can go in and participate,” Braza said. “I know I’m not the most skilled player out there.
“I don’t play club, and I know there are girls who are playing year round, but I love playing the sport, and I just love everything that comes along with it and all the memories I have.”
A four-year member of the program, Braza’s value to her team is underscored by the fact that she was elected captain in three of those years. After serving as captain of her freshman team, she earned that same distinction last year for the junior varsity, and this year was given the honor of serving as a captain of the varsity.
“Sarah is an authentic person who leads in a genuine and transparent manner,” East coach Michelle Finegan said. “Everyone on the team trusts Sarah and opens up to her because of her warm and friendly demeanor.
“She’s not the top kid on the team, but she’s definitely a leader. Three out of four years she was a captain, and she’s that kind of kid that is very trustworthy, very authentic. Her natural leadership qualities and strength in character were already apparent in middle school when Sarah was given the Principal’s Leadership Award.”
As a senior captain, Braza took intentional steps to make sure the underclassmen felt welcome, recalling how much it meant when she was in their shoes.
“I really like looking out for everyone,” she said. “I can remember being on the team as freshman and not even being on the jayvee or varsity but just remembering how the older girls treated me, and it would really mean a lot to me when they would reach out to me, so I try to do the same thing.
“I always try to include them or even give an encouraging comment here or there. I understand how that picks you up because I had older people who did that to me when I was younger.”
Braza has had an interesting journey. She tried out for the junior varsity with one of her friends as a freshman.
“We were not fortunate enough to make it,” she said. “Neither of us played club. We were just playing for the love of the sport. We loved the game, we loved our teammates, we loved everything about it.”
As a sophomore and junior, Braza was a member of the junior varsity.
“I was made captain of jayvee my junior year and I decided I was going to make the best of it,” she said and then echoed a familiar refrain. “I was playing because I loved the sport, so we all worked and won our games.”
Braza capped her hockey career as a captain of a successful squad that advanced to the district tournament for the first time in five years.
“It was an amazing year,” she said. “We’ve gone through five coaches in four years, and I guess the fifth time’s the charm in this case. We really worked together as a team. We’ve bonded off the field, and that was the most important thing. We were just so excited to have a team that all really clicked together.
“Since March, we’ve had practices. We’ve worked really hard because we wanted this year to be the best one.”
This year’s squad had the distinction of playing the first game ever on the turf of Lieutenant Colby J Umbrell Field in Patriot Stadium.
“We were like, ‘This is our home turf. We’re going to defend this stadium because it’s ours, and we finally have a home we can call our own,’” Braza said. “We were underdogs this year, but we were going to prove to everybody that our name should be remembered and that East was a force to be reckoned with this year, and I think we really came out and did just that.”
*****
Braza grew up in Massachusetts where soccer was her sport of choice.
“They didn’t have field hockey in my area,” she said. “In seventh grade, one of our teachers was like, ‘There’s this sport called field hockey. Would anyone be interested in trying it?’
“Me and a group of my friends said – that sounds like fun.”
Since hockey wasn’t offered in her middle school, Braza – who played soccer at the time – joined the new club team. The spring of that year Braza’s family moved to Pennsylvania.
“I realized hockey was a huge craze,” she said. “There are club teams here, and in Massachusetts, we barely had enough teams to play a few games because it was still so brand new.
“We came here, and all these club teams and school teams existed, and so many girls were involved. There we hardly had enough to play one game.”
Braza went out for her middle school team, and she’s been hooked ever since.
“I just really bonded with the girls, and we all fell in love with the sport together,” she said.
The senior captain never lost her passion for the sport.
“She’s a special kid, and she really does love the game,” Finegan said. “She’s a senior, and as we’re going through the season, she’s asking me how to do certain things, and she’s always interested in learning more.
“She has a quick smile. She’s easygoing, but she works very, very hard. She has a great sense of humor. She’s just a really special kid that keeps things light when they’re not. She’s just a neat kid.”
Hockey is one of a lengthy list of activities Braza is committed to at school and in the community. She is co-president of the Key Club, a service club at East, and she is also a member of the Buckingham Township Civic Association Affiliate Board. The two organizations came together when the Key Club cleaned up the community garden.
“We were able to get volunteers out to do two hours of work that would have taken them weeks upon weeks if we weren’t there to help them,” Braza said. “My family has really instilled the belief in me to give back. They’ve really focused on that with my brother and me.
“I’ve been doing things with my church for as long as I can remember, and when I got to East, I realized there were so many clubs where I was able to help make a difference in the community and at my own school.”
Braza is a leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a group of students that meet each Friday at 6:45.
“We have a lesson for 30 minutes,” said Braza, who taught the lesson last week. “We plan certain lessons about how you can bring Christ into everything you do.”
She is the president of East’s chapter of Heifer International, raising money for an organization that empowers people to change their lives to combat poverty and hunger.
“Last year they introduced something new where we were able to send two girls to school for a full year with the funds we raised,” she said. “It’s really awesome to know you were able to provide someone with an education.”
This year, Braza is looking into the possibility of holding a ping pong tournament as a fund raiser.
This past summer, Braza attended Camp Neidig, a leadership camp sponsored by the Rotary Club.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “You learn so many skills. It’s important to listen to everyone - even the quietest of people because everyone’s ideas are valuable and important.
“We had many speakers come in who were CEOs of companies or coaches at the college level. They spoke to us about leadership qualities that have worked that they found valuable in their careers as leaders.”
Spanish is another of Braza’s passions. A member of the Spanish National Honor Society, she reveled in the opportunity to practice her Spanish skills at this summer’s hockey camp that included an Argentinian team.
“I’ve liked the idea of being bilingual, and that was almost a pivotal experience in my life,” she said. “I talked to them in their own language because they struggled with English a little bit, and it kind of ignited my passion to push for more.”
A member of the National Honor Society, Braza is enrolled in four AP classes this year. She is applying to a number of four-year universities but insists she doesn’t have a dream school.
Braza plans to major in marketing.
“But I’m also pondering a second major with finance or accounting because I like to be multi-faceted and have different things that will set me apart from others when I’m applying for a job,” she said. “I also want to minor in Spanish and study abroad hopefully. I’m a very adaptable person.”
Club hockey could well be part of her future, but Braza’s first priority is to acclimate herself to her school with a focus on academics.
One thing is certain – if she plays hockey, she will play for the right reasons.
