By Ryan Albright
Marley Guidry steps onto the Field Hockey field with the pressure of meeting the expectations that her sister Madison Guidry set for her.
“Yes there is some pressure, [Madison] was really good, and it is always a competition between us, so it will be nice to see who accomplishes more in the end,” Marley Guidry said, in a phone interview.
Madi Guidry played Varsity Field Hockey for three years as a Royal, and Marley hopes to accomplish four years on varsity. Marley started playing as a fifth grader on a recreational team, and then a travel team.
“I started playing because I would go to my sister’s game and watch and I knew I would love to play right then,” Marley said.
Since watching her sister play, Marley came out for and made the Junior Varsity Field Hockey team last year. She came out this year and was told she would be on the Varsity team.
“I felt like I had finally accomplished what I had been working for,” Marley said.
“[Madi] would help me all the time. When I was in sixth grade, we would go in the yard and she would show me what expectations the coaches in high school would have for me,” Marley said.
Marley is not the only player on the Field Hockey team who has had a sister play for the team or a sister on the team now. The Hagee sisters, Madison and Ashlyn, are another set of sisters on the Varsity Field Hockey team. Madison has been playing since she was in sixth grade, on a recreation team.
“I was motivated to play because my mom had played Field Hockey in High School,” Madison said.
Ashlyn has been playing since eighth grade.
“I have always had an interest, and my mom played in High School,” Ashlyn said.
In her first year, Ashlyn played for the Junior Varsity team. She came to tryouts this year and she made Varsity as the starting goalie.
“[Ashlyn’s] the goalie and she didn’t really want to be, so I told her that she had to do it to help the team,” Madison said.
There are both pros and cons to being sisters on the same team.
“We can help each other at home and criticize each other to help one another, but on the other hand, on and off the field there is competition between us,” Ashlyn said.
“We can help each other out when we are upset about something, but sometimes we use each other too much,” Madison said.
The Varsity season has been a good one so far, with very memorable moments throughout it.
“My favorite memory from this season was beating Matoaca in the conference playoffs to win the conference championship, because it is the greatest accomplishment of my career so far,” Marley said.