LA JOLLA – La Jolla Country Day coach Krista Jackson has two midfielders/defenders who look the same on the outside as they return for their sophomore years in field hockey, but a service project in Jamaica in early August grew them and stretched them on the inside.
Sophomores Lily Witt and Harper Tilley, young leaders on a young team, traveled to a remote area in the Caribbean country and taught kids stick skills in their sport in between times making arts and crafts.
The duo accompanied former Torrey teammate Anna Lyn, who is Jamaican and who played on the LJCDS squad last year, for three days of interaction and mentoring with the children of a humble area.
What “Witt” (as teammates call her) and Tilley took away was probably more impactful than anything they helped the local children do. “To see how their lives were different really stayed with me,” Tilley shared recently during a break in the weight room on a recent afternoon at practice.
“We learned not to take things for granted,” chimed in Witt. “We’re really grateful.”
The kids in Jamaica had never heard of field hockey, so Lyn, Tilley, Witt, and her sister Kaylyn, and Dora Zhong, a classmate, concentrated on introducing them to the sport, and taught them about safety with the stick — how not to swing it up in the air and whack somebody in the head, Tilley says.
“I’m half-Chinese, and Dora is full Chinese. Some of the others were really shocked at the conditions in that region of Jamaica,” related Witt about the culture shock they went through. “We’re thinking of a fundraiser. We really want to give back to that community, like supporting education in some way,” Witt said earnestly.
Meanwhile, the fall field hockey season starts, and Jackson, in her ninth year as head coach, said: “We’re young. We only have 22 players, so we don’t split into two teams.” Witt and Tilley are two of several sophomores who populate the Torreys’ roster.
“In a preseason scrimmage, we played well against San Pasqual. We lost, but I’m proud of how we played,” said Witt, who in an interview doesn’t hesitate to be quite loquacious.
“When we’re under pressure, we can make our passes,” says Tilley. One of the hardest things to do in field hockey is “trying to make a shot really fast, or lifting the ball to try to put it in the upper corner of the goal.”
Tilley does double-duty in gymnastics on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the season. Jackson holds practice on those days in the mornings, from 7 to 8:10 a.m.
Witt, differentiated from Lillia Howe, a teammate, is the relationship glue who “sends messages to the other girls about things they can do together” outside of school and practice.
“Our goalie, Mikayla Shane—she’s good,” asserted Witt.
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