By Holly D’Addio, Harbor News Sports
Writer:
Growing up, Ariana
Pappas had a hard time finding a sport she wanted to stick with, but she found
field hockey in middle school and discovered her new passion.
“My mom used to play
field hockey in high school, so that’s how I knew about it,” says Ariana. “I
really didn’t have a lot of interest in other sports, but I picked up field
hockey quickly.”
Ariana made varsity
at Old Saybrook High School her freshman year as a left inner forward. She
continued to work hard in the off-season to perfect her skills by attending a
camp at Bentley College for a couple of years and a camp held in Westbrook that
was run by coaches from the Netherlands, as well as a camp at North Branford
Middle School.
She has since joined
an indoor team in the winter in Madison and
played this past summer at a Connecticut
College clinic. Ariana’s
efforts paid off as she was named Honorable Mention All-Shoreline last fall.
The Rams have seen
the most success they’ve seen in years this season. Ariana and her team went
5-0 before losing their last three.
“Ever since I’ve
been on the team my freshman year, we haven’t done this well,” says Ariana. “I
think we got too confident when we lost our first game and it was a big shock
to us. We’re starting to now play teams that we’ve played already so hopefully
we can get it together again.”
At Old Saybrook
High School, Ariana, 17,
is a member of Student Council, the Yearbook Committee, and on the board for
her grade. She has also been an active participant the past few years of the
Old Saybrook High School Walk to Cure Cancer held every spring when students
and their teams stay up all night and walk the school’s track to raise money
and awareness.
Ariana is in the
throes of college hunting and while she knows she’d like to go out of state and
possibly be a marketing major, she is unsure of her future in sports.
“I’m thinking about
playing field hockey in college, but I haven’t pursued it that much,” says
Ariana. “I try to make sure the colleges I’ve been looking into have field
hockey so I have the option.”
Sidelines with
Ariana Pappas
What is your most
memorable sports moment?
Our overtime game
last fall at East Lyme. We won 2-1 with a
minute left and I scored the winning goal. It was a really awesome feeling, not
just because I scored, but because we won and hadn’t really been having a good
season so this built up our confidence a little.
Who would you like
to thank?
The seniors on my
team—we’ve all been playing together since the sixth grade. We’ve all been
through it together and stuck it out and known we’ve had to get better and let
success come to us.
Pictured: Ariana Pappas is in her fourth varsity season on the Old Saybrook field
hockey team.
Photo courtesy of Ariana Pappas