Another beginning for Berry

Brett Orzechowski, Register Staff


NEW HAVEN — She left her past in Belfast, Maine, and later an hour away in Orono before walking away from a job in Chappaqua, N.Y. The decisions Ann Berry has made to pick up and move have been easy, but returning to familiarity has been a bit more difficult.

Berry is now 23 and before this summer, she last picked up a field hockey stick five years ago. She went from an all-state performer in a decorated high school program to a redshirt freshman at the University of Maine, only to leave college when the classroom and a sport were no longer appealing.

It’s a mistake many student-athletes make, but few are afforded the opportunity to return."She just wanted to try everything and just used up the time," says her father, Patrick Berry. "Now she’s disciplined, but she got that discipline from life."

Berry is called "mom" by her Southern Connecticut State teammates, lives on campus and was given another chance to play field hockey on the collegiate level when Owls coach Kelley Frassinelli answered Berry’s inquiry. The freshman midfielder wanted to play on the Division I level, but the NCAA age limit cut short that idea. Berry then looked at Division II schools. The coach watched Berry in summer leagues. An agreement was made. Berry enrolled.

Southern men’s soccer and football programs have long been recipients of more seasoned athletes, but Frassinelli has only accepted two older players in the last four years. Berry’s story, though, was unique.

Frassinelli didn’t have questions.

Berry did.

She grew up in a tight-knit family with 11 children – the oldest is now 32; the youngest is 8 – in a two-bedroom house where support was there, Berry says, but sometimes the money wasn’t. Field hockey turned into an outlet at a school where, for 35 years, coach Allen Holmes prepared 120 players for college.

Never, Holmes says, had a former player returned to college field hockey after a layoff like Berry’s.

She says there were unfulfilled promises of more scholarship money and playing time at Maine. She lost interest and left after a year with only 12 credits. She stayed in Orono and worked three jobs – opening the school’s gym, babysitting, waiting tables. Two years with little to show except small paychecks forced her to look somewhere else. She called her sister who was a nanny in New York and found a family that needed another.

For the next two years, Berry went from one large family to working for another. She saved money and moved on, only to decide that an education meant something, that an opportunity was squandered. She first looked for a school, then she wanted to play field hockey again.

"My first concern was my body. I’m old," Berry says. "How was I going to handle playing again, with girls younger than me, girls who didn’t take a five-year layoff? I blocked it out and just started working out."

She moves the same, but at a different pace. A mental edge and age are used to compensate for the speed she once owned. Berry sometimes finds herself having more in common with her coaches than her teammates, but she’s accepted and has helped Southern during an otherwise disconcerting season.

The Owls had an opportunity to clinch a Northeast-10 playoff spot Thursday, but they lost to Stonehill, and a St. Michael’s victory Saturday officially ended Southern’s season. Frassinelli says two victories slipped away. Berry agrees. A season will not be prolonged, but Berry’s career will.

For a player who watched videos of male field hockey players from India and Europe to improve her game, who has a move named after her at her high school, who realizes focus is more important than anything, the past three months have been gratifying.

"I know it’s difficult for her at times, but she’s already been out on her own, and that experience sometimes means more than anything," Frassinelli says. "It’s interesting in field hockey. You’re smarter, you’re older, you’re better. Physically, she knows she won’t be like she was when she was 18, but she knows how to make up for it."

Berry now says there are no more chances remaining. Now there is more of a chance that she will fulfill a four-year commitment to herself and Southern.

Frassinelli says she better. She hopes Berry’s time away from a sport and school has matured her, but improved her judgment as well.