Larkee healthy, Norwood is too
Shea Larkee loved playing field hockey her freshman year at Norwood High School in 2021. It was her first taste of high school sports.
“I had so much fun with the team, and I was looking forward to playing again,” Larkee said.
After earning Tri-Valley League All-Star accolades that rookie season playing forward for the Mustangs, Larkee went right into gymnastics season.
A lifelong gymnast, she was one of the bright freshman stars of the 2022 winter season, finishing in sixth at the Massachusetts High School Gymnastics Coaches State Individual Championships and qualifying to the Level 10 State Championships on the club level.
Larkee was going 100 miles per hour in all of her athletic pursuits. Then, in March 2022, it came to a sudden halt when Larkee tore her right anterior cruciate ligament, joining ranks with the approximately 38,000 female athletes who annually suffer the injury, according to the National Institute of Health statistics.
“She went from 100 [m.p.h.] to zero just like that,” said her mother, Judy (Collins) Larkee, a former Globe All-Scholastic field hockey player at Walpole who went to Harvard, where she earned Hall of Fame induction after scoring a record 102 career points.
After 11 months of rehabilitation, Larkee is finally back to full health and back on the field for the Mustangs, and has guided them to the top of the Tri-Valley League Large with a 5-1 record. The junior’s 11 goals have propelled her team as one of the surprise squads of the season with a No. 19 ranking in the Globe Top 20 field hockey poll.
“For the past few years, I think we have been rebuilding and now we have all the pieces,” said Larkee.
The team’s potential was something Larkee saw last fall in the midst of her recovery. Instead of wallowing in her misery at home, Larkee showed up to games and practices.
“I made the best of it,” she said. “I tried to be as helpful of a teammate as possible. I would be the ball girl. I would give my input between quarters.”
Larkee supported her team even though she was dedicated to her intensive and arduous rehabilitation. Shea’s parents, Judy and Scott, Harvard football’s associate head coach and defensive coordinator, helped her do research and seek out several opinions to find the best possible route in their oldest daughter’s recovery.
There would be no shortcuts, however. Larkee faced an 11month rehab process — a lifetime for a multisport high school athlete — to assure herself of a complete recovery.
Shea fully bought in to her rehab, traveling from Norwood to Waltham for treatment, staying committed to her therapies, and resisting the urge to get back on the field prematurely.
“It was like a full-time job for her,” said Judy Larkee. “She is a super competitive person, and she gave it 100 percent.”
Eventually, she was cleared to participate in the Mustangs’ winter field hockey practices, but only allowed to engage in light activity, all while helping the gymnastics team with floor exercise choreography.
By the spring, Larkee was able to suit up for Norwood’s varsity lacrosse team for the first time.
Now Larkee has the chance to build upon her promising freshman field hockey season, and she is doing so with an experienced group that includes fellow juniors in forwards Morgan Naumann, and Emily Spadorcia and midfielder Bridget Connelly. Also a member of the class of 2025, goalie Ava O’Neil made 30 saves on the first 32 shots she faced this season. Add clutch senior midfielder Lindsay Rogers to the lineup, and you have a Mustangs’ squad that is proving difficult to beat.
“We have experience with each other,” said Larkee. “We know how each other plays.”
With such a familiar core, it allows Larkee to set up her teammates, which her mother feels is one of her best assets. “She’s got amazing vision,” said Judy Larkee. “She can see the field really well. She sets people up so well.”
Larkee scored twice in Norwood’s 5-2 victory against Hopkinton Sept. 8, a triumph that revealed to her what the Mustangs were capable of.
“I think that was our most dominant game,” Larkee said. “We were able to put in two goals late in the game. Hopkinton is always good, so that was a good win.”
The Mustangs are focused on success this season, but Larkee does have her eye on the future. She would like to play Division I field hockey, but knows missing her sophomore year could be an obstacle.
“It set me back a little bit in the recruiting process,” said Larkee. “There are still opportunities out there, and I’m keeping my options open.”
She may be back playing field hockey, but one thing has not changed from her time spent idled by injury on the sidelines.
“My main goal as an athlete is to be able to bring success to my team in whatever way I can,” said Larkee.
Corner hits
■ When Barnstable senior Nick Bulman came out as transgender in 2018, he was worried he would no longer be able to play on the field hockey team.
Instead, the Red Hawks were welcoming. That season, former varsity coach Ashley Bishop, now the head coach at Bridgewater State, convened the program’s first Pride Game, a tradition that has continued at Barnstable and expanded every year since.
“Nick was really open about his transition, which was kind of new for kids in Barnstable, to see someone that was so open and proud of who they were,” said current varsity coach Caitlyn Sweeney.
On Sept. 20, the Red Hawks donned their rainbow colors once again, working with the school’s Gay Straight Alliance Club for the first time to create helpful resources for students and fans, including a quick sheet detailing the importance of using correct pronouns and inclusive language.
The game promotes the You Can Play Project, an organization that provides support for LGBTQ+ athletes and advocates for safety and inclusion for all who participate in sports.
“I just want my players to know that it’s important to be an ally, to be supportive of all people,” Sweeney said.
■ After each game, King Philip coach Kaitlyn Wilder gathers her players for a debrief that ends with the distribution of a big rubber duck.
The duck is presented to a player that stood out, in the estimation of the previous game’s recipient. The honoree is awarded a smaller duck as a keepsake.
Wilder began the tradition as an assistant coach on the girls’ lacrosse team at KP. When she noticed her players falling into a slump in 2022, she offered the team cooler as a postgame prize — hoping to reignite the Warriors’ love for the game.
“It’s nice to see the players choose someone that made an impact that you might not have expected, and that’s what I think is great about it,” said Wilders, who has the Warriors off to a 3-3 start, all three losses one-goal defeats. “It’s trying to get everyone involved, not just the top players.”