Today: Feb 13, 2025

Field Hockey: Former Player Named Assistant Coach

Ryan FlynnSports Editor –
Ann Farrier was an All-American midfield player, an NFHCA All-Academic Team selection and a three-time team captain. Now, she’ll take on a different challenge: trying to get the current Owls players to follow in her footsteps.Farrier, who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts, returns to the Southern field hockey team two years after her final game to accept an assistant coaching job. She was with the team last year as well but in an unofficial and “very part-time” role.

“My passion for the sport definitely will transfer into coaching,” Farrier said. “I definitely have a lot to learn so I’m looking forward to coaching under Coach Frassinelli. I’m learning a lot. The skills that I had on the field hopefully will transfer over and I can teach the girls something.”

Head coach Kelley Frassinelli talked about the Belfast, Maine native’s skills as a player:

“She had actually transferred here and we brought her in and she just made an amazing contribution to our team right away. She played midfield and attacked for us. Just a very versatile player. Very strong, very fast and, above all, very smart. Just very poised in her game, she really was a complete leader for our program when she was here.”

It is an interesting dynamic, given that the juniors and seniors on the roster actually played with Farrier in 2010. Paige Donlin, the team’s senior captain, spoke to this.

“I’m just excited, I don’t really know what to expect because I’ve never been in that situation before,” she said. “It’ll be weird calling her Coach Farrier, because I’m used to calling her Ann so making that transition will be weird for me. But, I’m excited and I know that she’s going to do great things for our team. We’re all excited to have her as an assistant coach and for all the new changes that are happening.”

Where Farrier looks to help most is with the midfield play, which is the position she knows best, having played it for four years. In that time, Farrier logged the second highest number of assists in team history. She is also fifth all-time in points.

“I was a midfield player myself. So hopefully getting the girls to see the field better and create some plays and light a little fire under their butts because I think we’re missing some of that passion over the past few years in this program. I’m hoping to bring some of that to them too,” she said.

Farrier said that compared to last year’s squad which posted a disappointing 5-13 record, this team should be better in two key areas: depth and discipline. With nine new freshmen players, the Owls have their largest roster in years. The depth issue may be solved right there, but instilling more discipline in the team will be up to Farrier and the staff.

“We look to improve a lot on last year’s record. It was a very disappointing year for us overall and we worked really hard this past spring to do all the little things that we weren’t doing this past year,” Frassinelli said. “We’re still very young so we’re going to make mistakes but we’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to push a little bit harder this year than we did last.”

So far this season, the team is off to an 0-2 start after losing their opener to Shippensburg University 0-5. They lost their next game 2-7 to Mansfield University and will play next at Assumption College on September 4.

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