Fox Chapel’s Pitcairn to compete in Germany
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For seven years, Abby Pitcairn has traveled more than four hours to Spring City, just outside of Philadelphia, two to three times a week to train.
It was worth it for the Fox Chapel senior, who committedto North Carolina for field hockey as a sophomore. But her grueling schedule meant shemissed out on a lot.
Her mom, Ann, remembers picking Abby up from prom so Abby could go directly to a national tournamentthe next day.
“We picked her up at 2 o’clock in the morning, she got in the car, we drove her across the state so she could get there,” Ann said. “She was taking her eye makeup off and her hair down and getting in her uniform in the backseat of the car. That’s justwhat we do.”
Abby will compete as a memberof the USA women’s indoor team at the World Cup in February in Berlin, Germany. She has been a member of both the USA indoor and outdoor national teams, travelling to South Africa, Germany, Canada and Ireland to compete on an internationallevel.
Her passion for the sport kept her motivated despite itstime-consuming nature.
“I really just had to weigh my choices, basically,” she said. “Because I could go to a Fridaynight football game or I go to a training that could get me selected to go to Germany. So you’ve just got to look at the bigger picture. But sometimes it’s hard just because I see pictures of all my friends out and together. But this just seems more worth it to me and they understand, they get it completely. They’re so supportive.”
Abby was introduced to field hockey, not as popular on the western side of the state, through her mom and older sister, Adriana Devries. The west has the Pittsburgh Venom, a prominentclub team, but the Philadelphia area is known as the hotbed for field hockey. Ann playedfield hockey when she was younger, and Adriana played in high school and at ColumbiaUniversity.
Abby, 10 years younger than Adriana, who is a triplet, would get dragged along totournaments.
“So I just said ‘Here, take this and pull the ball back and forth,’ and I showed her how, and that’s what she would do,” Ann said. “From there,it just took off.”
Before she could read, at the age of 4 or 5, Abby attended her first training clinic. It wasn’t long before shemade the WC Eagles club team as a 10-year-old and rose up through the hockey ranks.
If it ever became too much for her, Ann always gave her an out -— but Abby never needed it. And she hopes the sport continues to grow in the area so it can give others asimilar experience.
“Here in Western Pa., it’s good, because a lot of younger girls are starting to play and the numbers are slowly growing and kids are puttingmore of an interest in it, and that’s what’s going to help out when it gets older,” Abby said. “It’s just going to continue to grow and grow, whichis great.”