Nokomis field hockey coach Shaunessy Saucier talks to her team during an Oct. 13 game against Maine Central Institute in Newport. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
NEWPORT — The Nokomis field hockey team has come to expect something under first-year coach Shaunessy Saucier this season: Don’t think any day is going to be easy.
“She brings a lot of high energy to practice,” senior back Cali Kellem said. “We’ve got to be at the top of our game, no matter what.”
Saucier knows a thing or two about playing at a high level. A former Division I player at the University of Maine and coach at Division I Bryant University in Rhode Island, Saucier is now back in the part of the state where it all started for her, trying to develop players and continue a winning program with the Warriors.
So far, her impact has been immediate. Nokomis is 9-4-1, and in fourth place in Class B North.
“She knows the game,” junior midfielder Brianna Townsend said. “I think she’s really good at bringing our game to the next level. I know I want to play at the next level, so I think this is really preparing me so I’ll know what to expect.”
Saucier, who has former Nokomis head coach and Maine Field Hockey Association president Katie Thompson as an assistant, said the adjustment to coaching the high school game has been smooth.
Nokomis field hockey coach Shaunessy Saucier listens to assistant coach Katie Thompson, right, during an Oct. 13 game against Maine Central Institute in Newport. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
“It’s been awesome. I really love Nokomis and the traditions they have here,” said Saucier, 38, who also teaches French and Spanish at Nokomis and is a graduate student at UMaine. “I was walking into a really organized, well-run program.”
And she was bringing with her a rare wealth of field hockey knowledge and experience. The daughter of successful Orono coach — and member of the school’s Hall of Fame — Dodi Saucier, Shaunessy Saucier was raised on field hockey, and schooled in the game before she even picked up a stick.
“I have pictures of my dad holding me as a baby at my mom’s games at Orono … and us playing on the sidelines when we could walk,” Saucier said. “I’ve always grown up around it.”
Saucier had the talent to go with the acumen, and parlayed it into a standout career at Old Town before going on to play at Maine, where she became an assistant under Josette Babineau for a year before getting the head job at Bryant. She was there for nine seasons from 2008-18, going 51-96 with the Bulldogs, but soon came home to take over the Black Bear Elite program and then Nokomis.
Principal Mary Nadeau, who coached with Dodi Saucier, sought out Shaunessy for the job with the Warriors.
“I loved that experience (at Bryant). I was very young. I would have loved to have been an assistant for longer, but that opportunity just came up,” Saucier said. “…And I really wanted to come back to Maine. I love Maine so much. I just missed home.”
The high school field hockey world is different than the high-paced world of Division I collegiate athletics, but according to Saucier, that’s one of the pluses of the position.
“It’s just such a different lifestyle. I got out of it because I didn’t want to be recruiting every single weekend, or feeling guilty if I didn’t go recruiting that weekend,” said Saucier, whose parents and siblings, a brother and sister, live in the Orono area. “I have a little bit more time to do the things that I want to do, like be around my family. I was always gone.”
She’s had to adjust to more of a teaching role too, working with players not as refined as the Division I-caliber athletes that she brought to Bryant, but Saucier likes that part of the job too.
“I’ve always been involved in player development,” she said. “When I was at Bryant, I would coach for USA Futures, so I’ve always worked with high school kids, middle school kids. I love working camps, I love teaching the game to younger players, finding the kids who love it and watching them grow.”
Nokomis field hockey coach Shaunessy Saucier directs her team during an Oct. 13 game against Maine Central Institute in Newport. Michael G. Seamans
Still, there was a learning curve to master. Saucier favors an aggressive, attacking style of play, but found out that high schoolers’ skill level, as well as the uneven grass fields many teams use, required scaling back some expectations.
“Sometimes, I expect a certain level and I need to just be a little bit more patient, for sure,” she said. “With high school field hockey, that’s something I did have to adjust to. The ball can bounce over your stick so easy, it’s not your fault. It still pains me when I see a back so deep, but I know that sometimes it’s necessary. I’m like ‘Push up! Let’s go, let’s attack!'”
When it comes to teaching the game, however, Saucier has quickly found a rapport with her players. A back and forward at UMaine, Saucier knows how to instruct both sides of the field.
“(She’s good at) utilizing everyone on the field, no matter what position,” Kellem said. “Completely meshing (them) together, and I think it’s helped a lot.”
Her players know that when she addresses them, they’ll hear exactly what to do differently, and instructions on how to do it.
“I think she definitely established the first week of preseason that she was not a yeller,” Townsend said. “But that being said, she definitely is really good at giving specific feedback, so that we know exactly how to make that improvement to bump up our play to the next level.”
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