Skowhegan field hockey coach Paula Doughty says after years of doing this, sometimes she can see greatness ahead of time.

“When I get a kid in the seventh, eighth, ninth grade, I can usually tell whether they have the ability to be a top player,” Doughty said. “Some players are blessed with God-given talent. That’s the way it is.”

With her freshman class in 2008, Doughty got two of those players: midfielder Nicole Sevey and forward Jessie Skillings.

Between the two, you could wonder who was the best, but in the end, it didn’t matter one bit. Skillings and Sevey were driving forces on the best team in the state this year, and that makes them the Morning Sentinel Field Hockey Co-Players of the Year. Marissa Shaw and Leah Edmondson of Nokomis were also considered.

While Sevey and Skillings were gifted, both were also one-sport athletes in high school and worked year-round on their games. Doughty said she often would look to find them at practice and find them working one-on-one with a younger player.

“I think the thing they had in common was they both had an undying love for the game,” Doughty said. “Both tried to go out and do everything they could do to improve. In the offseason, because it was their passion, they devoted themselves to it.”

Skillings and Sevey also have their differences. Skillings had 27 goals and 16 assists this season, while Sevey often did the work 30 seconds before the goal but still finished with 11 goals and 15 assists.

They also have night-and-day personalities. Sevey, for example, is always quiet and understated.
“I’ve always been pretty calm,” Sevey said. “That’s just my personality.”

“It could be loud,” Doughty said. “It could be quiet. A bomb could go off. She would be no different. She kept me calm. I’ll miss that about her. There are times when I’m stressed and I’ll say, ‘What do you think, Colee?’ She’ll say, ‘We’re gonna be fine. What you said was good. We’re gonna be fine.’ ”

On the other hand, “understated” is not a word people would use often to describe Skillings.

“At practice, when Colee’s calm and collected, Jessie’s running around and whooping it up,” Doughty said.

But that high-energy personality masked Skillings’ dedication to make herself a better player.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a kid, except for Gina Dinan, who practiced like Jessie,” said Doughty,

Skowhegan’s coach the past 31 years. “She would go to the field and practice for hours on end.”

“I’m very dedicated to it,” Skillings said. “There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing than playing field hockey.”

Together, they led Skowhegan to its third state title in four years, finishing the season with a 5-0 victory over Marshwood on a snowy state championship Saturday. They also carried a respect for what each other can bring to the table.

“(Jessie) can get us scoring,” Sevey said. “She often gets us pumped up, because she has the personality to get us going and ready to play.”

“Nicole, on our team, was everything,” Skillings said. “Nicole is the whole package as a player and a person. She’s not only my teammate, she’s my best friend.”

They will be able to appreciate each other over the next four years. After both looking at Division I schools separately, they each decided to continue playing at the University of Maine.

“We had so many different schools that we were looking at,” Skillings said. “We never imgained we’d be going to Maine together.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

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