Youth is No Barrier for Lakeland Varsity Field Hockey Player, Girl Scout
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Michael Gold
Kendal Williams is an eighth-grader who made the varsity field hockey team at Lakeland High School, the gritty bunch who plowed through the other schools in their section and made the state finals, losing only to the Albany-area Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High.
She started in both the state semifinal and championship final games, as a midfielder and forward, after being first substitute during the regular season.
Kendal, 13, was selected player of the game for the team during the Oct. 31 semifinal sectional game at Rye High School. She scored a goal and “did well at pressing (defense),” said Lakeland Coach Sharon Sarsen
“For someone of her age to make the varsity team and make an impact is incredible,” Sarsen said. Kendal is “a phenomenal athlete. She possesses great speed. She’s determined and committed. She has good stick skills – passing, receiving, dribbling,” Sarsen added.
Kendal’s life is not just field hockey. She loves the game, but she’s got tons of other interests, too, including community service. Kendal has earned a vest full of badges with the Girl Scouts by doing things like helping make family dinners at Ronald McDonald House at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla.
She and her mom told me about her adventures in field hockey and the Girl Scouts in an interview a few days after the final game of the season, the three of us sitting in the bleachers at the beautiful Lakeland High School football field in Shrub Oak after the school day ended.
Her family has a long history with Westchester County field hockey. Her mother, Loren, a health care administrator, played goalie for Lakeland’s varsity team for three years. Kendal’s grandmother, aunt and great-aunt all played field hockey for Lakeland as well. Her great-grandmother played for Hastings High School.
Kendal started playing in the second grade, but she really “started to be obsessed with it in fifth grade,” she said. She played with the Hudson Valley Field Hockey Club, run by Sarsen, who’s won 13 state championships as Lakeland coach.
After playing for years with the Hudson Valley club, Kendal was selected to play at the USA Field Hockey Olympic Development Pathway Program, called Nexus, this past summer, at the organization’s Virginia Beach training center, in the Under 14 division.
“The girls are from all over the country, the best players,” Loren said. “They have to quickly figure out how to play together in the tournament. Nexus is the pathway to the Olympics.”
To qualify, Kendal played in various Nexus spring tryouts in New York, six altogether at SUNY Albany and Vassar. She was selected for two more regional tryouts at Brown University, which included players from all over New England.
After regional tryouts, Kendal got a phone call. She was told she’d been picked for the Nexus championship tournament.
“I was, like, in shock,” Kendal said. “I had no words when I found out.”
The 16 teams of 16 girls each were selected from 11 regions throughout the country.
They played in temperatures that reached the high 90s, over three days in Virginia in early July.
“It was hard to breathe,” Kendal said.
Despite the handicap of the hot weather, her team won a bronze medal.
Kendal has extended her love of field hockey to the Girl Scouts, to help grow interest in the sport. She created a website (https://linktr.ee/kendal.williams00) to collect used field hockey equipment from players who are done with their sticks, shin guards, balls, cones and pinnies (jerseys), which she donates to other girls who need equipment. It’s called “responsible consumption.”
“Kendal keeps the equipment in her room, and the garage,” Loren said.
She will bring equipment to clinics for other kids.
The website also provides tips on upcoming clinics to learn how to play, reviews of equipment and online resources for finding forums to talk about field hockey.
The project will earn her a Silver Award next September, one of the highest honors in Girl Scouts. To earn a Silver Award, scouts have to choose a project and “make a difference in your community,” according to the Girl Scouts website.
Also, Kendal has done Girl Scout work unrelated to field hockey, earning the Cadette Community Service Bar and the Bronze Award, both for community service. In addition to the 40 meals she helped make at Ronald McDonald House, she’s made sandwiches for the poor and helped plant a community garden in a local park. She’s worked with children who have physical, learning or behavioral issues or impairments, guiding them as they rode horses.
Additionally, she and her older brother, Keaton, are both Life Scouts in Scouting America.
Despite Kendal’s youth, she’s shown herself to be a valuable asset to the Shrub Oak community. This kid works fast.
Michael Gold has had articles published in the New York Daily News, the Albany Times Union and other newspapers, and The Hardy Society Journal, a British literary publication.
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