Johnstown junior forward Taryn Ringer heads the list of field hockey standouts.
Taryn Ringer has dreamed of playing field hockey at the collegiate level since she was a child.
Now, the junior forward from Johnstown has orally committed to play at Duke and is smashing school records as fast as she can make them, helping the Lady Bills all the way to the state final in the process. They lost 1-0 to Bronxville, their only loss of the season.
Last season, she scored 43 goals, a school record. This season, she had 44 goals despite being double-teamed much of the time she was in scoring range, enough for first in the state across all classes and fourth in the nation.
But Ringer leads the team in more than stats.
“She really takes it upon herself to make the other girls shine,” said Johnstown coach Christine Krempa. “She really makes a point of helping girls during practice with a skill or pushing them to do something they’re not comfortable with doing, and then that becomes their skill.”
For her part, Ringer tries “to push everyone to play their best and be there for them when they need someone,” she said.
Ringer pushes herself yearround. After the high school season ended, she went to Virginia for another tournament. Now comes the indoor season, “then a little bit of a break,” she said. But the field hockey doesn’t stop, with outdoor and summer ADK club hockey at the University of Albany to keep her occupied.
“She just always has her stick in her hand,” Krempa said. “I’ve been coaching now for 11 years and it’s become more and more rare that kids want to step up and really work for something, and she’s certainly one of those kids.”
Ringer is constantly honing her skills, focusing this season on defending.
“I wanted to be a very agile player and able to move around the field, so if we needed a defender, I could hop in and play defense,” she said.
Ringer has one more year before she’s headed to Duke. The plan? “To go back and win it all. It ’s my senior year and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other team,” she said.