MCI field hockey enters year of transition

It’s a new era for the Maine Central Institute field hockey team.

The Huskies, a long time power in the sport in central Maine, are now a team in transition. Last year, MCI finished the season with a 15-2 record, capturing the Class C North championship. The Huskies fell 3-2 to Winthrop in the Class C title game.

Maine Central Institute field hockey coach Terri-Jean Wilkinson works with her players during a preseason event at Winslow High School last Saturday. Michael G. Seamans

Immediately following the season, Nancy Hughes — the longtime head coach who led the Huskies to a Class C title in 2015 and a Class B championship in 2017 — stepped down from the position. MCI also lost its best player, Gracie Moore — who scored a program record 40 goals last season — to graduation. Moore will be playing for Division II Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts this fall on an athletic scholarship.

For its next head coach, MCI managed to find someone with strong ties to both Hughes and the program in Terri-Jean Wilkinson. Wilkinson is a former MCI player and assistant under Hughes, who got back into coaching at the middle school level in 2016 after taking some time away from the sport. A major positive — both for Wilkinson and the team — is that she has previously coached the majority of the current MCI roster in middle school.

“(The familiarity) is amazing,” Wilkinson said. “Sometimes, it gets tricky, because (I have to play) ‘good cop, bad cop.’ You play good cop for so long, and then (occasionally), the voice changes. But the expectations are still about the same.”

“It’s a big transition from last year because we have different coaches,” MCI senior Jenessa Foster said. “But we’ve known our (new coaches) for a while, since middle school. I think it’s going to be a good change. We love Ms. Hughes and we love our coaches now, because they have similar techniques.”

How the Huskies make up for the loss of Moore remains to be seen, though Wilkinson has been impressed with the talent that returns.

“We have a small team this year, but we have some very powerful athletes and a very powerful defense,” Wilkinson said.

MCI has been hard at work throughout the summer. Though the Huskies graduated a large senior class, a strong core of veterans with championship experience return, along with what Wilkinson described as a talented crop of newcomers.

Maine Central Institute’s Hannah Robinson dribbles up the field during a preseason game against Maranacook last Saturday in Winslow. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Senior Hannah Robinson has been impressed with the improvement of the team during the summer months.

“We have a ton of potential,” Robinson said. “We’re very young, we lost a bunch of seniors last season that held starting positions. I think all the new players have a ton of potential, and ever since the first game in the summer (to now), there’s been a drastic difference. We went from not really knowing how to play at all to making plays and making field hockey (look) pretty. I’m excited to see how it turns out.”

“We have a lot to work on, because we have a lot of new people,” Foster added. “Some haven’t played before, some have played. As long as we connect together and play as a team, we’re going to do pretty good this year. (As a senior class), we just need to work (with the younger players) and show them what we’ve learned, show our experiences. But we also need to learn from them, how they play, how we play, so we can work together.”

The schedule is no friend for the Huskies this season. MCI opens the regular season against Foxcroft Academy, which finished second behind the Huskies in the C North standings last year. MCI also has top Class B North programs Lawrence, Winslow and Nokomis lined up as opponents.

Wilkinson said she’s confident with the talent the Huskies will have on the field this season.

“We’re set in our lineup where we’re strong in the front nine and we’re setting up our defense where we’re strong in the back,” Wilkinson said. “We feel confident that we’ll see a few changes (on the field), but we’re confident that’s going to be the change (we need).”