Chesapeake High’s Rachel Fleig never misses a chance to lend a helping hand. Fleig goes out of her way to mentor fellow students and younger children in field hockey, a sport she’ll be playing at Appalachian State in North Carolina on a scholarship.
She also worked out with Chesapeake students throughout her four years of high school in Unified bowling and bocce. Fleig gets the most satisfaction helping special needs students who participate in Unified sports. “It’s so amazing to help them when they don’t know how to do something,” says Fleig, who also ran outdoor track during her sophomore and junior years. “Just seeing their faces light up. It just makes you feel like a better person. After long days at school, just to be able to hang out with them, it makes you appreciate things more.”
Chesapeake field hockey coach Joan Johnson appreciates how generous Fleig is with her time. She’s always eager to pass along her field hockey knowledge. Johnson says Fleig is almost like her assistant coach. “Rachel will have new players come to her house to help them with stick skills or anything they need to improve on,” Johnson explains. “These are brand new kids that have never played before. She will send an email out to everybody in the program saying, ‘Does anybody want to play today? I am going to my field.’ She will do that all year long.”
The field Johnson is referring to is a 30-by-30 square foot plot in Fleig’s backyard in Pasadena. Johnson fondly describes Fleig as a “field hockey nut.”
“She always has a stick in her hand,” Johnson says of the year-round player. “She just practices, practices, practices in season and out of season. She always wants to do more.”
Fleig has learned a lot about the sport by just watching games—at any level. “If there is a college team playing close by or another high school team or a club team, she will go see them play,” Johnson says. “She will also hit college games on the weekends—Towson, Maryland, or Georgetown.”
Fleig’s varsity field hockey accomplishments at Chesapeake are impressive. The four-year starter and three-year co-captain led the Cougars in scoring every season and finished as the school’s all-time leader in goals (72) and assists (50). She earned Field Hockey Coaches Association of Maryland All-State honors as both a junior and senior.
“What makes her such a good player is her stick work,” Johnson says. “She has the best hands in the county. The hands on her stick move like magic. She is often double and triple teamed. People just watch her and say, ‘Wow. Look at that. How did she get through that?’”
Fleig has had some memorable games. With Chesapeake trailing 2-0 to Arundel during her junior year, Fleig scored two goals in the last 15 minutes and another one in overtime to lift the Cougars to a 3-2 win. She also had a hat trick in a 3-2 conquest of South River last fall.
The 5-foot-5 Fleig received as much notoriety for her stellar play in the USA Field Hockey Futures program and competing for the Gaels and Freedom field hockey clubs. USA Field Hockey named her a National Futures Championship selection twice and AAU Junior Olympic selection once. On top of that, Fleig led the Junior Premier Indoor League in scoring three times playing for the Gaels. “We play teams from up and down the East Coast and some of the best teams in the country,” says Johnson, who doubles as the Gaels’ coach.
Fleig’s next big field hockey challenge will be playing at Appalachian State. She signed a National Letter of Intent in November and was also aggressively recruited by Virginia, James Madison, and Old Dominion. “I’m getting ready for the Division I level,” says Fleig, who carried a 3.5 grade-point average at Chesapeake and plans to major in mass communications. “I run four or five days a week. I have a personal trainer. I am doing cardio, powerlifting, and dead squatting. It takes a toll on you, but I want to get used to it, so once I get to college I really can start working out and building body mass.”
