Alyssa Langevin stops a Princeton shot during a 5-0 home loss on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
In her first game as a freshman goalie for the Hamilton West varsity field hockey team, Alyssa Langevin surrendered three goals to Princeton before she even knew what hit her. The game would become a 5-0 loss and, over Langevin’s first two years in goal the Hornets went 2-28-3.
She hung in there, however, and her patience was rewarded last year when West went 4-10-3 and defeated Jackson Liberty in the first state tournament win in program history.
Most athletes might have wilted under those first two seasons of constant losses and rapid-fire shots on goal. But Langevin persevered thanks to a chat coach Judy Goldstein had with her after those first three goals.
“Being a varsity goalie as a freshman was scary because it was a new sport and my first time playing it,” Langevin recalled after shutting out Steinert, 2-0, on opening-day this season. “In that first game, we played a very good team, and I had so many shots on goal I didn’t know what to do. My coach called a timeout and said, ‘Alyssa, put your body in front of the ball, that’s all I’m asking you to do.’”
Those words seemed to have had some magic in them.
“Since then, I learned the right technique of where to keep the body weight, how to stay on my toes, when to go out, when to cut off angles and from there I picked up my technique,” Langevin said. “I really watch the game and really keep my eye on the ball and just think about what I can be doing to make myself better.”
As those early losses mounted, Langevin got some more good advice from her coach.
“Ms. Goldstein is always there motivating me,” Langevin said. “When I mess up she says, ‘Hey, don’t put your head down’ because I tend to be very hard on myself and I don’t like mistakes. I’m a perfectionist. So she says, ‘Alyssa mistakes happen, you’re not gonna learn if you don’t make mistakes.’ So she always encouraged me not to get down on myself and mistakes are OK. That was the best thing she ever told me.”
Thus, as the years progressed Langevin has made herself into one of the Colonial Valley Conference’s better goalies. She got a lot of practice from seeing so many shots early in her career and, even in games when she allows numerous goals, it’s not a reflection on how she plays.
“She’s an amazing athlete who has done great things for our program,” Goldstein said. “She’s going to be really, really, really, really missed next year after graduation. You think I can get a few more ‘reallys’ in there?”
Langevin grew up playing soccer and, while she enjoyed the sport, she wasn’t in love with it. When she arrived at Hamilton in ninth grade, she decided it was time for a change.
“I was starting in a new school and it was going to be a new year, a new me, so I said, ‘Let’s do a new sport as well,’” Langevin said. “It turned out great. I love this sport.”
That first season, she was completely unfamiliar with field hockey but decided on her position when she realized the goalie could kick the ball. She had that experience from soccer and beat out three other candidates for the starting goalie’s job.
“Once they saw I could kick the ball out past the circle, they said ‘Hey, you’re in,’” Langevin said.
In donning the goalie’s garb, she began to feel like an animated super hero.
“I looked and felt like a Transformer,” she said. “The first day I put this stuff on they said ‘OK you’re gonna run laps around this field.’ I tripped three times, I kept getting back up and doing my best. I wanted to win the job and that kept pushing me through.”
Although she never went to camps or clinics, Langevin continued to improve just through working hard in practice. Goldstein says her dedication has been second to none in learning how to play a sport and a position so foreign to her.
“She started out not really understanding what goalie was,” Goldstein said. “She was like ‘I’ll do it’ and I’m like ‘Oh man, this is great,’ because nobody else would do it. She’s had years where she’s gotten a lot of shots on her and she just said ‘Give me more.’ She’s never afraid of a shot. She says ‘Just give it to me and if it goes in I want to learn from it.’”
One of Langevin’s biggest assets is her even-keeled temperament in the goal. Whether things are going good or bad, she maintains a calm demeanor and is always in control. Her teammates feed off of that energy.
“If a goalie is panicked and angry because a goal scored, you’re out of luck,” Goldstein said. “She’s a positive role model for our kids.”
Langevin missed some time as a sophomore due to a broken nose, but other than that, she has been durable. She admitted that frustrations were starting to boil over slightly as a sophomore but Goldstein gave her yet another effective talk.
“She said I need to keep trying for my team,” Langevin said. “It’s a team game, not just a goalie game. It’s not just my game. I’m doing this for my team and I can’t get frustrated and let myself get down in the dumps.”
Goldstein also reminded her that field hockey wasn’t life and death. It was more about the process than the result.
“We talked about why she was in it because obviously we’ve never been in it for the big wins,” the coach said. “We’ve been in it for what we get as a team, like the pasta parties, the paintball, the community service, the breast cancer walk. And so she realizes we’re a team in progress. We’re always going to be evolving.”
Langevin has remained a work in progress throughout her career but she finds time to do other things as well. She cheerleads for basketball in the winter, plays lacrosse in the spring, works at Pete’s Steakhouse bussing tables on Sundays and has done dance throughout her life. She is versatile on the floor, doing ballet, tap and jazz.
“You name it, I do it,” she said.
Langevin not only enjoys dancing, but noted that it helps her in goal.
“It is the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “Sometimes I do a split to get the ball when it goes real wide, and it’s the best thing because I never pull a muscle because I’m flexible from doing dance.”
Goldstein agreed that Langevin’s light feet on the dance floor transfer well into the goalie’s circle.
“She’s always ready, her body is just ready to go into the movement and that directly relates to dance,” the coach said. “It flows from one thing to another. She’s not a choppy goalie. She’s a smooth goalie. That’s her gift and that dance experience helps her in the goal cage.”
It helped make Hornet history last year when Hamilton defeated Jackson Liberty, 1-0. Langevin called that game “the best feeling in the world.”
“I was just so proud to be on the team,” she said. “I was so happy to be part of it because this program has grown so much the past couple of years, and this team is like my second family.”
The goalie feels that this season, her family could enjoy its best campaign since she has been with the program.
“We have a lot of potential,” she said. “We’re always working hard, every practice is taken seriously and we look at the good stuff and the bad stuff. We praise the good stuff and we learn from the bad stuff. Our mistakes help make us better.”
Langevin is living proof of that.
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