A few years ago, Boston University field hockey coach Sally Starr was scouting a game involving one of the Maine Majestix club teams.
“I saw this young kid playing,” Starr remembered, “and I was like, ‘Wow, this kid is really good! I’ve got to recruit her.'”
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Amy and Brian Bernatchez run the Majestix program, and Starr knows Amy well, so she asked Amy who that kid was. Amy replied that it was her daughter, Katie.
Now, as a junior at BU, Katie Bernatchez is a starter and a key player on offense and defense for the Terriers. While Starr obviously knew who she was, Bernatchez said she first became interested in BU when her cousin Ciara Corbett played for the Terriers from 2006-10.
“BU was just the best academic fit, and the most challenging for field hockey,” said Bernatchez, a Messalonskee High School graduate. “It was the highest level I could play field hockey, and I really wanted to accept that challenge.”
Over her first two years, Bernatchez played regularly and started 11 games. But while she was contributing, she was scuffling a bit while adjusting to a new position.
“My freshman year — and my sophomore year, actually — I played more of a right back,” Bernatchez said. “I was used to being in the middle of the field, and distributing the ball, and being more creative.”
This season, Starr moved Bernatchez away from right back — and to Bernatchez’ delight, it was to a position in the middle of the field.
“This year, I’m kind of between a midfielder and a back,” Bernatchez said. “We call it the back of the diamond.”
“It’s very much a backbone position,” Starr said. “It’s kind of like a point guard in basketball. We’re playing well when the ball gets into her hands. When she’s not getting many touches, we’re not playing as well.”
Bernatchez got to play the season opener against Northwestern, but then became ill while the Terriers were traveling to Ohio for their next game. She ended up staying two nights in the hospital with pneumonia, and had to sit out five games.
“It was very frustrating,” Bernatchez said. “I worked all summer for everything. We thought, when I got sick, that could be the whole season.”
It was frustrating in a different sense for Starr and the Terriers, who had prepared throughout preseason for Bernatchez to be one of the leaders of their attack.
“At one point, before she came back, I said facetiously, ‘I think our passing game got pneumonia,'” Starr said. “We definitely missed her when she was out.”
Bernatchez said that the idea that her season might be over has meant she no longer takes just being able to play for granted.
“Now I’m just happy that I can play at all, because I thought I might have no season,” she said. “It’s kind of changed my perspective, just to be grateful to be able to play.”
At BU, Bernatchez is on a team with only one senior in the starting lineup. Starr said Bernatchez has become a leader, and she’d like her to take that a step further.
“She’s only a junior, and she plays a really important role for our team — what you’d expect a veteran senior to be,” Starr said. “We’re actually trying to get her to be more verbal, because her teammates really respect her.”
BU takes a 5-5 record into Wednesday’s game with Providence. The Terriers played one of their best games of the season in a 3-1 victory over Harvard on Sunday.
“We’ve kind of had a few low points the last couple weeks,” Bernatchez said. “But things are looking up after (Sunday). We’re really maturing as a team, so if we can continue on the upward trend, I think we’re going to have a great second half.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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