Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Eli Manning
Favorite team: New York Giants
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring the game-winning goal in OT against CB East to get a share of the conference title for the first time in 15 years. After the game our team went out to dinner to celebrate the win!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I played goalie in a lacrosse game once and I wasn’t very good!
Music on your mobile device: Country
Future plans: Continue playing field hockey at the University of Pennsylvania and major in Finance at The Wharton School of Business.
Words to live by: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog”
One goal before turning 30: To visit all the National Parks
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to play golf with my grandfather in my free time.
By Mary Jane Souder
Someday somewhere down the line Courtney Kenah could well be working on Wall Street, and the Souderton senior will look back to where it all began.
On a hockey field.
Not literally, of course, but Kenah’s passion for hockey and the outstanding skills she developed undeniably opened doors that might not otherwise have been opened.
“I always wanted to go to the best school that field hockey could get me into,” Kenah said.
That’s exactly what she will be doing. The senior standout recently received her letter of admittance to the University of Pennsylvania where she has one of just two seats offered to her field hockey class in the prestigious Wharton School of Business.
“When I went on one of my visits to Penn, they said if I wanted a seat at Wharton, it was mine,” Kenah said. “As someone who wanted to go into business, I don’t want to pass up on the opportunity to go to the number one business school in the country. With the good athletic program and the excellent school, that was a great fit.”
Kenah once thought she might pursue a career in health or human services.
“A physical therapist, doctor or that kind of thing, but in high school, I started taking more business and math classes, and I really like math, so finance is what I want to major in,” she said. “I definitely want to work on Wall Street. Anything in finance – I haven’t really narrowed it down that far.”
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Kenah got her first taste of field hockey in first grade playing in the Indian Valley Intramural rec league.
“A little pamphlet came home in first grade for intramural field hockey,” she said. “My mom had played hockey throughout high school, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, my mom played.’
“I just really liked it. My mom was the coach, and I don’t know how you would say it in first grade, but we had a stacked team. It was all my friends. We scored a lot of goals, and obviously, that just makes it more fun.”
By the time she was in third grade, Kenah was ready to move on to something more competitive and joined WC Eagles on the club circuit.
“It was the only place that started kids that young,” Kenah said. “It was so weird because everyone knew someone there, but I was completely alone. No one from this area knew what it was.
“I went once a week and only in the fall, but in fourth grade, I started doing winter, and I kept adding practices. I’d do winter and then I did small group and things like that as the years went on.
So much time was spent at the WC Eagles practice facility that her father, TJ Kenah, decided to log his hours spent there. The total for one year – 375 hours and 40 minutes, and that didn’t include the drive time to and from the Spring City facility. Translate those 375 hours into eight-hour workdays, and it amounts to 46-plus days.
Kenah reaped the dividends for time spent working at her sport, and by the time she was in middle school, Kenah knew that she wanted to add her name to the list of high level recruits to come out of WC Eagles.
“Fourth grade it’s hard to imagine that you’re going to play Division I field hockey, but once I started going there, it was always in the back of my mind that it would be a possibility,” she said.
When she entered high school as a freshman, Kenah earned an immediate spot on the varsity, and the recruiting process began.
“I was open to everything,” she said. “There was never one school that I was like – I definitely want to go there. Everything was a possibility for me.”
Kenah narrowed her choices down to Penn, Northwestern and Boston College, committing to Penn as a sophomore.
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Souderton’s field hockey program – two years removed from a one-win season - was on the rise when Kenah and her classmates arrived. The Indians won 17 games in her first two seasons combined but equaled that win total when Kenah was a junior.
This year, the Indians took the final step, capturing a share of the program’s first SOL Continental Conference title in 15 years and earning its second berth in states in as many years.
“I always thought we had the potential to do it,” Kenah said. “Our team was strong, we had a lot of good players. My sophomore year we lost seven games by one goal, so that was frustrating, but we were knocking on the door, but we just couldn’t get it done.
“I was always hoping that it would happen. Could I honestly see it happening? I’m not so sure, but it’s really awesome it ended up happening. Especially the last two years, it’s nice to go out with a bang.”
For Kenah, the hockey season just completed was an opportunity to cross several items off the bucket list she’d created.
“Getting a share of the conference and beating (defending champion) CB East were a part of that,” she said. “We were hoping to win at least one game in states, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
There is no mistaking Kenah’s immense impact on the program. The speedy right forward closed out a stellar senior season with 26 goals and 18 assists for a total of 70 points to lead all conference players.
“The big difference in Courtney this year – she was consistently strong,” coach Sue Casciato said. “Her three best games last year were the two district games and states where she was the standout player for us in the postseason.
“This year she played that way in league games, non-league games. She was just a stronger player throughout the season. She got better as the competition got better and the season went along. Lots of times she was double teamed. Sometimes we would move her around, but because of her speed, lots of times she could run right past people.”
Blessed with both speed and skill, the diminutive standout, who measures in at 5-2, could beat teams in a lot of different ways.
“I think this year she just played with a ton of confidence,” Casciato said. “She’d get a step on somebody, and she’d just go. She has a consistent drive from the top, and she’s had quite a few goals on corners or drives from the top of the circle.
“She can score any way. She can also take the ball on the end line and deke out the goalie and slide it into the side. She pulls the goalie, and the goalie is thinking there’s going to be a pass, and she slid it past her into the side of the goal cage.”
Casciato admits she saw a different side of her senior captain this year.
“Last year I felt like I didn’t even know her because she was so quiet,” the Indians coach said. “This year she’s a different person.
“Maybe last year because we had so many seniors she didn’t want to stand up and take a leadership role. I don’t think it’s in her nature to be the person that takes the lead. She’s a great athlete and a great player, but she’s usually not the one that’s going to get on the bus and get up and make a speech.”
Kenah acknowledged the change.
“For me, I think I’ve not always been the most confident person,” she said. “I don’t ever want to step on people’s toes. I don’t want to overstep my boundary. If I’m a junior, if I’m an underclassman, I don’t want to take a senior’s (leadership) position.
“As a senior, I was older than everybody else, and I just felt it was more my place to be more of a leader. Maybe I could have done that a little more junior year. I definitely became more of a leader senior year.”
For the past two years, Kenah had the opportunity to play with her sister Lauren, who is two years younger and also excels on the hockey field.
“We used to play together in the intramural league,” she said. “Now that it was actually legit in high school, it was a lot of fun.
“She’s a really good anchor in the midfield, so it’s really nice to have her. I knew that wherever I would go she would be able to get the ball to me. I will definitely miss playing with her.”
Away from the hockey field, Kenah – a member of the National Honor Society – is an excellent student with a course load of AP and honors classes. She is also a member of Souderton’s Athletic Leadership Council and LINK Crew, which helps incoming freshmen get acclimated to high school life. She volunteers in both her school and community and is the definition of a student-athlete.
“Courtney came in with a bucket list of things she needed to accomplish - not just in hockey but things throughout her senior year,” Casciato said. “Getting to states, winning the league title, she’d be like, ‘Okay, one more thing to get off my bucket list.’ She had a super year, she’s a good kid.”
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