From youth fields to a CIAC title push, Ludlowe field hockey ready for next step
· Yahoo Sports
FAIRFIELD - Lily McClay thinks about it every day. The Staples playoff game. The two overtimes. The shootout that got away.
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"I use it as motivation every time we come onto the field or get together as a group," the Ludlowe junior said. "That loss hurt, but I think it will push us more this year."
Last fall, Ludlowe field hockey largely outplayed the defending champions and forced Staples to the brink in the CIAC Class L semifinals. The Wreckers survived regulation and two overtime periods, then made one more shot in the shootout to win 2-1 after a 1-1 draw. Two years earlier, Ludlowe's trip to the semifinals ended in an 11-1 loss.
Now, the Falcons want to get past that round, not just back to it.
"Getting back to that point would be one thing, but getting past it is what we want," McClay said. "I think we deserve it, and we're capable of doing it this year."
Ludlowe is 6-0-0-1, with an overtime loss to Staples. The Falcons are the top-ranked team in CIAC Class L.
Ludlowe's only state title came in 1977, when Roger Ludlowe won the Class L championship. That was nearly 50 years ago, before Warde and Ludlowe merged into Fairfield High and later split back into two schools. Since the split, the Falcons have never played in a championship game.
This group's story did not start with a coaching hire or a recruiting class. It started in the Fairfield youth program.
Laura McClay, Lily's mother, has been around these players since they were in elementary school. She has been involved with the youth program since Lily was in fourth grade and still sits on its board. When she took over the varsity job, she said, people assumed it was because her own daughters were in the program. That wasn't the case.
"It really was the senior class that I met in the youth program when they were in fifth or sixth grade," said McClay, who is in her fourth season at Ludlowe after two years as an assistant at Staples. "I followed them along and thought we could make some changes here. They were the ones I had my eye on."
She brought five of the current seniors up as freshmen and gave them significant playing time right away. The following year, Lily McClay, the only freshman on the roster, joined Coco Biggs and Georgia Pecknold, then sophomores, in the lineup. There are currently 11 seniors on the roster.
"It was fun to see their progress and reward them with that playing time," Laura McClay said. "My first year, we won the games we were supposed to win and lost all the big games. We began to believe that we could do it, too."
Three Division I-committed players sit at the center of that belief.
Biggs, a senior forward and Boston College commit, is a GametimeCT Second Team, CHSCA All-State and All-FCIAC selection. She started in the midfield as a sophomore before moving up front to fill a hole as a junior, and she will stay there this season.
"Coco is a calm, skilled attack player," Laura McClay said. "She has been a big addition to the program since her freshman year and is an incredible athlete."
Pecknold, a senior defender and Holy Cross commit, is a captain and an All-FCIAC honorable mention selection who organizes the back line.
"She communicates well, and having a senior leader in the back has been huge," her coach said. "She's our captain and is very supportive. She's more of a rah-rah cheerleader, but she plays with a lot of calmness and quiet confidence."
McClay, a North Carolina commit, scored 35 goals with 19 assists last year as a sophomore. She was named GametimeCT All-State First Team and is a two-time CHSCA All-State and All-FCIAC selection. Her mother says the drive was always there. If someone whispered that another player was the best in town, she would go out in the backyard and do extra work.
"The best players bring the rest of the team with them," Laura McClay said. "If someone can get close to matching her work ethic, I love it. She has always had the drive to be the best."
Their teammates see the same things. Biggs said McClay's competitiveness "sparks something in everyone else." Pecknold said McClay holds everyone accountable and can separate being serious from being friends.
McClay called the two seniors older sisters. "They're not just role models for me, they're role models for the whole team," she said.
"Coco is always there for you," Pecknold said. "She's there if you need a friend, but she's also there if you need to be pushed. If you're not trying your hardest and she knows it, she won't let it slide. She'll tell you to step it up."
The years together have shown on the field.
"By playing with each other, we've learned how one another plays and what everyone's strengths are," Biggs said. "We're more instinctual now."
Most of the players play for different club teams in the offseason, and Laura McClay encourages them to play other sports. She coached none of them in club, preferring to just be a mom in the stands.
"They're talented, humble and coachable," she said. "They also have fun together."
Ludlowe beat New Canaan on opening night, a statement to the rest of the FCIAC. The rematch with Staples was Monday, with Darien later in the season. The Falcons are trying not to look past any of it and toward the playoffs.
"For this program, having success is still new," Laura McClay said. "None of us assumes anything. Each year, we start over."
For Pecknold, the goal is simple. Seeing a banner in the gym.
"That would make all the running and all the work we've put in feel worth it," Pecknold said. "It would feel amazing to leave here knowing that we did something. We did it."
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