Whether on the lacrosse or field hockey field, Villa Duchesne senior Cooper Hudspeth is on fire when she wields a stick. A second-generation field hockey player, she picked up the sport in elementary school. “My mom actually went to Villa, too, and played field hockey there,” she says. “She encouraged me to try it and I ended up loving it.”
Hudspeth also swam varsity at Villa, and she picked up lacrosse as a sophomore. “I wanted to do something new and always wanted to try lacrosse,” she says. “I love the bond you form with your team. To be successful you have to pass the ball, and you have to know how to connect with each other.”
Although she’s had success in all her sports, field hockey is her strongest, she says. Villa made it to state this fall, and next year the multiple-sport athlete will play for Miami of Ohio. “When I met the coaches, I fell in love with the program and the school,” she says. “I loved that it was close to home, because I have two younger sisters; this way I can continue to be part of their lives.”
Hudspeth always had her eye on competing at the college level, but it wasn’t always clear that field hockey would be the sport. “I just ended up evolving more with field hockey,” she says. For years, Hudspeth has been a member of Gateway Field Hockey Club and also participated in U.S. Field Hockey’s Futures, an elite training program that pairs high school students with some of the nation’s top coaches and feeds the Olympic Development Pipeline. From 2012, she also has participated in Futures Elite, the top level of the Olympic Development Pipeline, providing training and competition to top-level athletes.
Pictured: Cooper Hudspeth