Elizabeth Welch ’18 leads with confidence and enthusiasm.
Andover Field Hockey Captain Elizabeth Welch ’18 has led Andover Field Hockey to a ten-game winning streak this year.
Having taken up ice hockey as soon as she could walk, Elizabeth Welch was able to quickly translate her talent on the ice to the field when she was introduced to field hockey during her freshman year at Winchester High School.
Elizabeth Welch said, “[With] field hockey, since I started relatively new in high school, there is so much opportunity to grow each time you play, and you can really see how teamwork and passing sequences really work which is really awesome because it is a total team game.”
Elizabeth Welch plays center-back, a defensive position. Her athleticism and skill are both valuable assets on the team, according to Lily Rademacher ’21.
Rademacher said, “She is so confident in the way she plays, gets the ball, and does the exact right thing at the exact right time. It just looks perfect. She is such a pivotal player on our team. She is so confident and aggressive. She steps up to every ball and knows just the right times to go and to play.”
Marisol Nugent ’20 added, “She’s really good at communicating on the field and distributing balls in the center. [She] and [her sister] Charlotte [Welch ’18] are both just really solid players. They’re very athletic, [it’s like they] have unlimited battery life [and] they can just run up and down the field all day. She’s really good at setting the ball up for breakaways and she [also] has a really nice drive.”
Elizabeth Welch credits Head Coach Kate Dolan for her talent and success in field hockey.
“I think our coach, Kate, really influences me, helps me to gain confidence on the field, and pushes [me] to work harder. You can just tell how much passion and love she puts into the team. It really inspires us all to do the same,” said Elizabeth Welch.
While Elizabeth Welch is a vital asset to Andover’s defense, according to her teammates, she is also an invaluable leader and role model, displaying an unrelenting work ethic during both practices and games. Watching her teammates work hard inspires Elizabeth Welch to do the same.
Elizabeth Welch said, “I honestly think that you can derive so much will to compete and motivation to really dig deep when the games get tough from looking at each other and seeing that your teammate is hustling so much harder and [that inspires you] to match that because you’ve made a commitment to them.”
Rademacher said, “You can tell that when [Elizabeth Welch] steps onto the field that she is trying her hardest to play her best and that she [expects] everyone else on the team to do the same.”
Nugent added, “I feel like she is the symbol of PAFH love and being together and being a team. I feel like she really holds us together. Especially a couple of weeks ago when everyone was sad she was always organizing stuff for us to just hang out and be together. She is the togetherness of our team.”
According to Elizabeth Welch, she hopes that, as a captain, she can make practice something to look forward to for all of her teammates.
Elizabeth Welch said, “[I want] to keep reminding people to appreciate what we have and that what we have won’t last forever so we should just live it up while we can… I am just going to try to keep up the energy and positivity especially when the games get tough, and they definitely will as the season progresses because we have a lot of hard teams coming up, and just to keep that motivation up and the positivity throughout the games and the practices and just keep everyone excited.”
“I hope to leave behind a team that has unconditional support for each other on and off the field and truly plays together,” she continued.
