Junior Captain Spotlight: Julia Shove

Shove started playing field hockey her freshman year on a search to make new friends, not knowing anything about the sport. Little did she know she would earn the captain’s title after only playing for two seasons. 

During her freshman year, Julia Shove started playing field hockey for The Morgan Huskies. She dedicated hours of time and effort, like participating in summer camps and putting in the work at the gym, to achieve the captain’s title by her junior year. She was given the captain’s title and was also awarded Honorable mention for her sophomore season, and was awarded first team all conference in her Junior season. 

Shove began playing field hockey after some encouragement from a few members of the class of 23´ such as Shannon O’Brien, along with seniors graduating this spring, Izzy Lee and Meredith O’Brien. She decided to join the Morgan field hockey team in her freshman year with the hope of making some new friends and loved the team aspect of it as gymnastics is more of an individual sport, “Gymnastics is more of an individual sport where field hockey is more of a team sport and I just love the team aspect of it.¨

Julia went into the season not knowing anything about the game: “I didn’t even know how to hold a stick.” Shove said her coaches, Mrs. Holmes and Krystina Johnson, taught her a lot and were able to encourage her to become the star player she is today.

Shove has always been involved with the athletic world, whether it was competing in gymnastics competitions at her gym, Flip Flop in Deep River; competing in dance competitions at Limelight & the Dance Corner,  or playing park and rec soccer for the town. However, none of them stood out to her like field hockey does.

Shove wasn’t an outgoing kid in middle school. She would always be so busy with her hectic gymnastics schedule that it was hard for her to branch out. She would go to gymnastics practice three days a week from 5:30 to 8:30 in Deep River, which can be a rough schedule for such a young kid. Mentally, gymnastics was very hard for Julia as well. ¨As much as it is physical, it’s equally mental.

“I had a lot of mental blocks on skills, which made it very frustrating to go to practice every day.” She ended up quitting gymnastics this past winter, ending at a level 7, which allows gymnasts to create their own routines with specific skill requirements,  after she realized she wanted to become more serious about field hockey. 

Even though Shove had a tough time with gymnastics mentally, “I definitely think gymnastics made me the athlete that I am, and it made me never give up, never quit.”

Gymnastics was all year round, it never stopped, so it really pushed Shove to get past all of her mental blocks in order to better her skills. Her coaches were very strict, ¨The coaches didn’t care; if you wanted to quit, you were done.¨

Even though Junior, Captain, describes Shove as a natural, she would play as much as she could in the offseason in hopes of helping her team become better. She also started playing club field hockey for HTC, which has helped her improve her skills. That’s not the only thing she does, though. “I’ve done clinics in the past. I do summer camps, and a lot of pre-season with the team. I also try and focus on my endurance, so I go to the gym a lot.”

Shove believes that the Morgan team has also encouraged her to become the best possible player she can be. “Our team is probably the best at Morgan. I’m a little biased, but it really is. We have great connections; we always have fun.¨ She explained that she thinks the team has always had a close relationship throughout the years she has been at Morgan and encourages incoming freshmen to join in the fall.

Shannon & Meredith O’Brien really encouraged her and showed her what a true leader and captain are. ¨Shannon was a leader on and off the field, and it really gave me an example of what a good leader looks like,

and the same thing with Meredith.¨ She also described her relationship with graduating senior Izzy Lee, ¨ She’s always been someone that I could go to the turf with and practice. She always helped me get new skills.¨

Julia’s teammate and friend, Whitney Treubig, explained how Shove is a leader on the field. “She is able to help the girls with their communication skills and is able to keep the whole team from getting in our

heads when we are having a rough game.

Shove is a dedicated athlete who put in time and effort to become one of the best in the shoreline in only playing for three seasons.