Central Michigan University Athletics
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
Affable, Adaptable Alice: Junior From England Leads The Charge In Rejuvinated Field Hockey Program
8/26/2021 8:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Watching Alice O'Hagan play field hockey and then talking with her off the turf is a study in contrasts.
On the field, the Central Michigan junior is a competitive spitfire, putting on display a visceral feel for the game that has made her the Chippewas' leading scorer in each of the past two seasons and a two-time All-Mid-American Conference selection.
Away from the turf, she is courteous to a fault, her British accent syrupy smooth. Hard to believe she could ever have a cross word for anybody or anything.
The Chippewas open the season on Friday at Cristy Freese Field against Indiana (1 p.m.). They enter 2021 as a rejuvenated program, having finished the spring season 5-7, their highest victory total since 2014.
It's been a building process for fourth-year coach Catherine Ostoich, and her budding star from Britain has been at the core.
"She's definitely one of our big leaders on the team and she's definitely helped changed this program," Ostoich said.
The numbers bear that out. She enters her junior year with 11 goals and 28 points in 31 career games, making her one of the more prolific scoring Chippewas in recent memory.
Still, it may be on the intangible side where O'Hagan is most impactful.
"It's the it factor that you can't coach," Ostoich said. "It's that extra effort, it's that extra desire. She reads the field very well, she reads the game very well. She knows how to put pressure on herself and live up to it, but if she doesn't then she's going to work to make sure that she does live up to it.
"She's got great talent; but she just knows what to do in all situations. She knows when to shoot the ball versus when to draw a foul. She knows what to say to our team when we need it."
She also thanks her coaches after every practice. Who does that? Others on the Chippewa roster do it now too.
And when O'Hagan says it, It hits home with teammates because it isn't just talk; she lives it, she does it.
"I'm not thinking that I'm going to keep the ball and make sure I'm the one who scores," O'Hagan said. "No, if my teammate scores, that's great. Whatever's going to make the team better and win the game.
"Doing the best I can on the field, whether that's me cheering on my teammates or playing well or getting short corners or whatever – just try to lift everyone up as well."
Growing up in Surrey, which is southeast of London, O'Hagan played hockey along with tennis, netball (similar to basketball) and rounders (think a mashup of baseball and cricket). By the time she was in her teens, she eschewed the other sports for hockey and was playing, as she puts it, "for the ladies side." In short, she was good. Really good. And getting better.
Ostoich signed O'Hagan without ever having seen her play in person, an unfortunate circumstance that comes from the necessity of recruiting internationally. Video of O'Hagan displaying her vast talent and the recommendation of a recruiter was enough for Ostoich.
O'Hagan visited the CMU campus with her father in January, 2019. Despite the fact that it was the coldest weather she had ever encountered in her young life, she signed on and was back in Mount Pleasant in August, ready to get down to work.
Despite her immediate on-field success – she scored less than 7 minutes into her first collegiate game, sparking a 4-1 win over Colgate -- there was understandable longing for home during her freshman year.
But the easy-going and affable O'Hagan turned her focus to hockey and school.
"Luckily here the team is like such a family and there's such a tight bond and that's really helpful," said O'Hagan, a marketing major who carries a 3.41 grade point average and was named to the Academic All-MAC Team and the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad in the spring. "Not a lot of other things to think about when you're out there."
Her sophomore year was marked by COVID. She returned to Mount Pleasant from England in August, 2020, and, because of travel/quarantine restrictions, could not go home – and her parents couldn't travel from England to the U.S. – for the entire school year.
But, as is O'Hagan's convention, she rolled with it. Modern technology, such as Face time and texts, helped too.
"It would be nice to go home and see my friends and family, but this is what it is at the moment and there's no point dwelling on it because you're just going to make yourself feel worse about the situation," she said, adding that she spent Thanksgiving with teammate Lauren Buffington at her family's home in Wisconsin and then went to Florida to visit her brother, Max, a former college golfer and now a graduate student at Central Florida, at Christmas. "I was on the beach for Christmas day, which has never happened before. That was really nice."
Prioritizing and adapting are, clearly, O'Hagan's strengths. On the field and off. A perfect constitution for an athlete, where short-term amnesia can be a major strength.
"She is just so good with leaving it on the field," Ostoich said. "She makes a mistake, she's on to the next thing. I think that applies to her whole life. It's like, 'Oh, something didn't go right? I'm going to move on, I'm going to make it better next time.'"
Next time starts Friday.
On the field, the Central Michigan junior is a competitive spitfire, putting on display a visceral feel for the game that has made her the Chippewas' leading scorer in each of the past two seasons and a two-time All-Mid-American Conference selection.
Away from the turf, she is courteous to a fault, her British accent syrupy smooth. Hard to believe she could ever have a cross word for anybody or anything.
The Chippewas open the season on Friday at Cristy Freese Field against Indiana (1 p.m.). They enter 2021 as a rejuvenated program, having finished the spring season 5-7, their highest victory total since 2014.
It's been a building process for fourth-year coach Catherine Ostoich, and her budding star from Britain has been at the core.
"She's definitely one of our big leaders on the team and she's definitely helped changed this program," Ostoich said.
The numbers bear that out. She enters her junior year with 11 goals and 28 points in 31 career games, making her one of the more prolific scoring Chippewas in recent memory.
Still, it may be on the intangible side where O'Hagan is most impactful.
"It's the it factor that you can't coach," Ostoich said. "It's that extra effort, it's that extra desire. She reads the field very well, she reads the game very well. She knows how to put pressure on herself and live up to it, but if she doesn't then she's going to work to make sure that she does live up to it.
"She's got great talent; but she just knows what to do in all situations. She knows when to shoot the ball versus when to draw a foul. She knows what to say to our team when we need it."
She also thanks her coaches after every practice. Who does that? Others on the Chippewa roster do it now too.
And when O'Hagan says it, It hits home with teammates because it isn't just talk; she lives it, she does it.
"I'm not thinking that I'm going to keep the ball and make sure I'm the one who scores," O'Hagan said. "No, if my teammate scores, that's great. Whatever's going to make the team better and win the game.
"Doing the best I can on the field, whether that's me cheering on my teammates or playing well or getting short corners or whatever – just try to lift everyone up as well."
Growing up in Surrey, which is southeast of London, O'Hagan played hockey along with tennis, netball (similar to basketball) and rounders (think a mashup of baseball and cricket). By the time she was in her teens, she eschewed the other sports for hockey and was playing, as she puts it, "for the ladies side." In short, she was good. Really good. And getting better.
Ostoich signed O'Hagan without ever having seen her play in person, an unfortunate circumstance that comes from the necessity of recruiting internationally. Video of O'Hagan displaying her vast talent and the recommendation of a recruiter was enough for Ostoich.
O'Hagan visited the CMU campus with her father in January, 2019. Despite the fact that it was the coldest weather she had ever encountered in her young life, she signed on and was back in Mount Pleasant in August, ready to get down to work.
Despite her immediate on-field success – she scored less than 7 minutes into her first collegiate game, sparking a 4-1 win over Colgate -- there was understandable longing for home during her freshman year.
But the easy-going and affable O'Hagan turned her focus to hockey and school.
"Luckily here the team is like such a family and there's such a tight bond and that's really helpful," said O'Hagan, a marketing major who carries a 3.41 grade point average and was named to the Academic All-MAC Team and the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad in the spring. "Not a lot of other things to think about when you're out there."
Her sophomore year was marked by COVID. She returned to Mount Pleasant from England in August, 2020, and, because of travel/quarantine restrictions, could not go home – and her parents couldn't travel from England to the U.S. – for the entire school year.
But, as is O'Hagan's convention, she rolled with it. Modern technology, such as Face time and texts, helped too.
"It would be nice to go home and see my friends and family, but this is what it is at the moment and there's no point dwelling on it because you're just going to make yourself feel worse about the situation," she said, adding that she spent Thanksgiving with teammate Lauren Buffington at her family's home in Wisconsin and then went to Florida to visit her brother, Max, a former college golfer and now a graduate student at Central Florida, at Christmas. "I was on the beach for Christmas day, which has never happened before. That was really nice."
Prioritizing and adapting are, clearly, O'Hagan's strengths. On the field and off. A perfect constitution for an athlete, where short-term amnesia can be a major strength.
"She is just so good with leaving it on the field," Ostoich said. "She makes a mistake, she's on to the next thing. I think that applies to her whole life. It's like, 'Oh, something didn't go right? I'm going to move on, I'm going to make it better next time.'"
Next time starts Friday.
Players Mentioned
MF
/ Field Hockey
MF
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