This Queen Anne’s County High School junior is set to excel on the field and in the classroom at college
Student athletes like Haley Cole are considered rare for Queen Anne’s County High School Field Hockey Coach Shana Corder. Cole plays multiple sports—including two seasons on the girls varsity lacrosse team—and carries a weighted 4.25 grade-point average. The junior will play field hockey at James Madison University in Virginia in 2026 on an academic and athletic scholarship.
On top of that, Cole co-captains the field hockey team, serves as an assistant coach for Team Chesapeake Shore Field Hockey Club U-12 players, belongs to the school’s National Science Honor Society, Spanish Club, and Morgan’s Message, a mental health club for athletes.
“She a really great student-athlete,” Corder says. “She not only works so hard in the athletic arena, but in the classroom. She is in the National Honor Society and involved in all that other stuff. She is really just a great kid.”
Cole agrees that she is sharply focused on both her grades and the sports she participates in. “I am always very busy,” she explains.
Obviously, field hockey is her favorite sport. She competes in it year-round, including the past seven years for the Team Chesapeake Shore. She works on her skills on a daily basis: on the front porch and in the backyard of her Centreville home along with playing on a turf field at the Churchville Recreation Center. “You have to be obsessed with the game,” Cole says. “You really can’t put down a stick. It’s fun and really beneficial.”
The 5-foot-4 Cole was a coveted college prospect. Before Cole verbally committed to James Madison in July, two other Division I programs, Davidson University and Towson University, and Division II Belmont Abbey College recruited her. But it wasn’t a hard decision for the 16-year-old Cole, who attended field hockey camps there in April and July. She has a hard time coming up with something she didn’t like about the school.
“It really felt like home,” says Cole, who will sign a National Letter of Intent as a senior. “I felt a real connection to the school, team, and coaching staff. I really believe I will be happy there.” Corder says attending the James Madison camps aided in her development. “I think attending those camps set her above other players.”
Cole, a midfielder, hopes to build on her field hockey success at Queen Anne’s County. The three-year starter earned Second-Team All-Bayside Conference honors and All-Eastern Shore honors while helping the team to the best record in school history at 14-1, the Class 2A state semifinals (the team lost to Hereford), and the program’s first-ever Bayside Conference championship.
“She works extremely hard, and it is really going to pay off during her junior year,” Corder says. “I saw her become very confident when we were rolling into the later part of the season. She had a real voice on the field.”
That’s what earned her a co-captain role as a junior. Cole’s leadership skills jump out. “She is always preaching for everybody to hustle,” Corder says. “She will lead by example and be doing it herself as well.”
Cole’s biggest priority on the field is to get the ball to her teammates. “Distributing the ball is such an important thing to me,” Cole says. “I want to give them more offensive opportunities. I really work well with my teammates.”
Corder says Cole is the ideal player to coach. And she loves Cole’s unselfishness, calling her the ultimate team player. “Her hockey I.Q. is her biggest asset,” she adds. “And she is a very well-rounded player. I wish I had a team full of players like her.” With Cole’s outstanding off-and-on the field skills, that seems to be true.
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