Photograph courtesy Webb Family
Gennie Webb always seems to carry around a field hockey stick with her everywhere. It all started in elementary school when she played with her older sisters Abby and Libby in the backyard or basement of their family’s Easton home, or even at a nearby field.
Webb stays involved with the sport year-round whether it’s playing for her high school team, Saints Peter & Paul, one of two high-caliber club teams, or coaching and refereeing.
Webb, a senior three-sport athlete, practices everyday with her younger sister Angie, a freshman field hockey player at Saints Peter & Paul. The sport consumes Webb.
“I can remember when field hockey was not in my life,” Webb explains. “I was always with my sisters practicing or on the sidelines watching them. I can’t imagine life without field hockey. My parents sometimes worry about me getting injured because I play so much.”
Libby and Abby Webb went on to play field hockey at Division I Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania after graduating from the same high school their sisters now attend.
“My older sisters played in college and seeing their experiences inspired me to play in college,” Webb says.
It’s not a surprise that Webb will be playing field hockey in college. In fact, she will suit up this fall for Division I Virginia Commonwealth University, where she’ll major in biology with an eye on going to dental school afterward. The 17-year-old Webb carries a 3.86 weighted grade-point average in high school and took five advanced-placement classes.
“The main reason I want to go to Virginia Commonwealth is the coaches,” says Webb, who also had an offer from Davidson College in North Carolina. “I think they are amazing. The head coach (Stacey Bean) coached my two older sisters while at St. Francis.”
The 5-foot-7 Webb, a midfielder, had a stellar career in high school. The Eastern Shore Independent Athletic Conference named her its Player of the Year in both 2022 and 2023. Webb also led the Sabres in scoring three times.
“She has had a field hockey stick in her hand since basically she could walk,” Saints Peter & Paul Field Hockey Coach Debbie McQuaid says. “She works at her game nonstop. Her stick skills are phenomenal. I have coached in high school for 25 years and she’s one of the best I’ve ever had.”
If there is one thing you can say about Webb it’s that she is a consistent offensive player, scoring 22 or more goals during her last three years in high school. Webb’s senior year was her best as she totaled 25 goals and 25 assists.
Photograph courtesy Webb Family
She had some outstanding games this past fall. Webb scored four goals in a 10-1 thumping of Salisbury’s Holly Grove Christian School and recorded two goals and an assist in a 3-0 blanking of Severna Park’s Severn School.
“She is the best teammate you can have,” McQuaid says. “She makes everyone around her better. She encourages the younger players and helps them with their skills.”
After the high season is over Webb focuses on further developing her skills playing for Team Chesapeake in the winter and the Shore Field Hockey Club in the spring and summer.
“It has really helped me get better,” Webb says of competing with the club players. “I am going against some amazing players. And it has helped me get recruited by colleges.”
Webb excels in swimming and tennis, too. She ranked as the No. 1 tennis player on her school team. And Webb competes against boys in swimming as the Sabres compete in the Baltimore-area’s Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. She took third in the 100-yard backstroke in the conference championships.
“She blows some guys out of the water,” Sabres’ Swimming Coach Caroline Petosa says. “A lot of the girls on the team get really nervous racing against the boys, but Gennie just gets in the pool and goes for it.”
Webb may be the busiest student at her school. Besides playing three sports and carrying a heavy course load, she volunteers for canned food drives, Toys for Tots during Christmas, at nursing homes, and tutors younger students in English and Spanish through clubs.
Outside of school, she volunteers at For All Seasons Mental Health Behavior and Rape Crisis Center in Easton and paints in her spare time.
“She is the definition of a student athlete,” Petosa says. “I was a student athlete myself and I would love to say I figured out a system half as well as she has.”
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