Field hockey consumes Severna Park High School senior Lila Slattery. Slattery stays involved with the sport all year long, whether it’s playing, coaching, or refereeing. She always seems to have a stick in her hand.
“Field hockey comes first,” Slattery explains. “A friend may ask me to hang out [but] I often say I have a field hockey practice or a game.”
Slattery earned a national ranking. Last year, MaxPreps put her on its 2020 watch list, which includes the top 150 players in the country. She will attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on a field hockey scholarship.
“She is the most dedicated player I have coached in 15 years on the high school level,” Severna Park Field Hockey Coach Shannon Garden says. “It seems like field hockey is all she does. Any day, you can find her up at school taking shots by herself. She is always asking her teammates to practice with her.”
Working on her skills is critical to the 5-foot-4-inch Slattery, but she also enjoys coaching and refereeing. “I love coaching a lot because I am usually teaching third graders,” Slattery says. “They are just picking it up and it gives them a good foundation.”
Still, Slattery’s main focus remains on the field and preparing to play at the next level. She understands it will be much tougher than high school and club.
“When I get to Northwestern, [it’ll be] such a high level of play,” Slattery says. “I don’t want to be playing catch up. I want to go there and already have all the skills I need to have. So, I am doing extra practicing. I just feel like I can always get better.”
Slattery started on the Severna Park varsity for the past three years, and she’s arguably the Falcons’ best player. She led the team in scoring as both a sophomore (15 goals, 9 assists) and junior (14, 8). She’s a very aggressive player.
“Most of the time, it’s just being gritty and scrappy and staying with it,” Slattery says of the key to her scoring goals. “You have to get after the rebounds and stay with it.”
Slattery has received plenty of accolades. She’s been chosen as first-team All-County twice and the Field Hockey Coaches Association of Maryland named her a first-team All-State selection in 2018.
“Her IQ of the game is incredible for a player her age in high school,” Garden says. “She can see plays unfolding even before they happen.”
Slattery, a team co-captain, is like an assistant coach on the field at times.
“She is my go-to player on the field,” Garden says. “I rely on her feedback very much. When we have time outs, I will pull her aside and ask her what she thinks is going on. She has a good handle of what everybody is doing on the field and what is working and what is not.”
Slattery plays for SPark Field Hockey Club in Gambrills for nine months of the year.
She helped SPark to the 14U National Indoor Tournament championship in 2014 and has appeared on several teams that participated in the National Club Championship tournament.
“Having a stick in your hand year-round just makes you more comfortable with the game,” says Slattery, who also competed on the Severna Park varsity lacrosse team in 2017 and outdoor track squad in 2018. “And you have a better field sense of when to do what on the field and how to move.”
When the 17-year-old Slattery isn’t playing sports, she spends a lot of her time studying and participating in school clubs. She carries a weighted 4.41 grade-point average, is the editor-in-chief of the yearbook, and serves as secretary for National Honor Society.
She also belongs to the Spanish Honor Society, Key Club, Women in Engineering Club, Girl Scouts, and organizes a Backpack Buddies drive for St. Martin’s in-the-Field Episcopal Church.
“She is 100 percent selfless,” Garden says. “She is a positive soul.”
