Penn-Trafford grad Allyson Doran putting time on sidelines to good use for Mercyhurst field hockey

Every once in a while, Allyson Doran still gets the itch to play goalie. That’s where she started her journey in field hockey when she took up the sport in eighth grade after moving to Penn-Trafford School District.

But it wasn’t long until her coaches figured out that Doran had speed. Not wanting that to waste away in goal, they moved her into the offensive zone where she could use her fleet feet to attack the cage.

It is a role she has come to embrace but admits she still feels the pull of the goal.

At the moment, however, Doran, a junior at Mercyhurst, would like to play anywhere. During the team’s last lifting session of the spring, Doran felt a “pop” in her shoulder, which turned out to be a torn labrum. Surgery and three months of recovery followed.

Doran, in fact, was just cleared to pick up a stick again in late August. Contact, however, is still several weeks away, and she will miss all but a handful of games during the Lakers’ 2023 season.

Quite inopportune, really. The Lakers recently got a new coach, former Millersville player Mackenzie Hadfield, so Doran is missing valuable time when she could be getting acclimated to Hadfield’s system and playing style.

That doesn’t mean she has been idle.

Doran has taken on the role of de facto assistant coach, using her experience to help along a young roster that is working toward changing the direction of the program. In the last three full seasons, Mercyhurst has won only six matches, two in the PSAC.

“She’s a great teammate. She works super well with all of our girls,” Hadfield said. “She is at everything we are involved in. Yeah, she might be on the sideline, but she’s still such a huge part of this team.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have her. She’s been helping us with film, with team morale, making sure everyone is included and having a good time.”

Though she has been involved with team activities, Doran admitted it hasn’t been easy. It was particularly difficult standing by and watching her team win its first two regular-season matches, both against Roberts Wesleyan, by a combined score of 21-0. That’s 12 more goals than the Lakers scored all of last season, and the two wins equals their 2022 total.

But Doran has learned to take her new, temporary role in stride and use it as a learning experience.

“I get a different view of the field,” she said. “I talk a lot with the coaches … so I get to put in my perspective of it, and that definitely helps (the coaches) as well to see a player’s view.”

Doran and some of the other upperclassmen — there aren’t many on Hadfield’s roster — got a little taste of what it was like to do some coaching in the offseason. Hadfield wasn’t hired until the first week of June, so the returning players had to put themselves through drills and police themselves for much of the offseason.

Grad assistant Katie Lammando helped, but, Doran said, the players were in do-it-yourself mode for large chunks of time.

“The spring was like a rebuilding time for the whole team, time to focus on ourselves and stay connected,” she said. “We were really able to coach ourselves and hold each other accountable.”

If nothing else, her time on the sidelines has helped Doran form a quick bond with Hadfield. The new coach said the two often chat and exchange ideas, and she appreciates Doran’s ability to point out things she might miss.

But both want to see Doran back on the field as soon as possible. A reliable goal-scorer at Penn-Trafford, Doran wants to bring that back at the college level. Her first two seasons at Mercyhurst produced only one goal and one assist in 22 total games.

Hadfield said she definitely sees Doran in an attacking role once she is cleared for game action.

Beyond that, Hadfield hopes Doran can become an example for other girls from Western Pennsylvania who might be considering field hockey. Popular mainly in the Lancaster and Philadelphia areas, field hockey hasn’t quite caught on with the same fervor in the WPIAL.

Doran is one of only two WPIAL players on a roster in the 10-team PSAC. Hadfield is aware of the challenge she faces in building the program at Mercyhurst, but she sees players such as Doran as one of the keys to success.

“We are in a little bit of a difficult situation where we are located, but the PSAC is such a competitive conference that we’re able to pull some great players out of there for sure,” Hadfield said. “She’s a great role model for this next generation of field hockey players that’s coming up. Her succeeding will inspire, hopefully, more recruits and more young women to participate in field hockey in the future.”

For Doran, the future can’t get here fast enough. Though it might be for only three or four matches, she will be back on the field at some point this season helping the Lakers toward what they hope is a solid building block for the next several seasons.

In the meantime, she will continue in her unofficial coaching duties to help shepherd a roster full of freshmen and sophomores.

And, yes, she even has been helping out the goalies.

“We’re working on building our game play and our intensity,” she said. “I know last year we didn’t get a lot of outcomes and we didn’t win a lot, but we’re trying to get more outcomes and beat the teams we definitely can beat.

“Beating the teams we almost beat last year is definitely a big step. And just scoring. We struggled with putting a goal in against most teams, and with our (first) scrimmage, we put up five, and that was a big thing for us. I think that really boosted our confidence, so, hopefully, that carries through to the rest of our season.”