Ellie Marrone was given an option that very few ninth-graders are allowed.
To stay, or not to stay, that was the question the Hamilton resident faced concerning the Notre Dame varsity field hockey team last year.
“We thought about keeping her on varsity, but were afraid to keep just a single freshman up,” coach Cheryl Harris said. “Freshmen are young, it might have been a social disaster. We told her we’re only bringing up one or none and that ‘We think you would do well on varsity but we don’t want to bring you up if it’s going to hurt you socially. Don’t answer me now, just think about it.’
“The very next day at tryouts she came to me and that’s the first thing she said – ‘I want to play varsity.’ She made the choice to stay with us as opposed to staying on JV with more freshmen. She did such a great job and I feel like she learned a lot from the other girls. We had a good group of seniors last year and she grew so much.”
It was a choice Marrone did not take lightly, nor take long to make.
“I went home, thought it over and I thought varsity would be better for my skills, it would be better for me and it will give me the chance to meet more upperclassmen,” Marrone said.
Marrone informed Harris of her decision the next day and has never looked back.
“I was new to the program so I didn’t really know what varsity was like and what I would do. But I definitely made the right decision and benefited from it. I would have been a lot different on JV,” she said.
Marrone contributed six goals and three assists to finish as the Irish’s third leading scorer. Included in her output was a hat trick against West Windsor-Plainsboro North early in the season, which garnered her a starting berth.
With the graduation of Sarah Ippolito and Nicole Villalta-Barrantes, the sophomore was the team’s leading returning goal scorer this season. Through a 4-1 start, she was tied for second on ND in goals with four, to go along with three assists.
Even more impressive is that she remained a constant in an ever-swirling world.
“We have her taking over Sarah Ippolito’s spot at center-forward,” Harris said. “She’s probably the one person who hasn’t moved in our many lineups we’ve been trying because we just know that’s where she belongs.
“I have a lot of confidence in her. She’s great on the goalie, she’s a good rebounder and she knows how to pass. She’s not a selfish player. She just knows what to do in front of the goal and we actually have her distributing the ball on our corners too, because she’s just good at timing.”
Marrone is loving every minute of her time with the Irish, which is not surprising since field hockey is a sport she has long wanted to play. Her yearning started in fourth grade, but there were no teams in the area, so she began playing lacrosse (which she also plays at ND).
Ellie discovered a field hockey recreation league in Bordentown in seventh grade, and learned the sport quickly.
“Even the coaches were saying that I picked it up really fast from the beginning,” she said.
Part of the reason for that was Marrone’s preparation. Unlike many players who show up to play just because they are looking for something to do, Ella did some research.
“I looked up the rules and stuff before I started playing,” she said. “When I got my stick before the first practice I kind of played around with it, so I got used to flipping the stick and that kind of stuff, so it wasn’t really that difficult.”
After one year in Bordentown, Marrone went to the Blue Stars club team “and that’s when I really got into it.” Although she was a forward in rec, she was put at midfield by the Blue Stars. Ellie, who went to St. Gregory The Great before enrolling at Notre Dame, was moved back to her original position by Harris.
By the time the regular season started, Marrone felt at home.
“The upperclassmen did make me feel really welcome, especially since I was the only freshman,” she said. “It was nerve wracking. I was new to the school too so I knew nobody, but they were really friendly, very welcoming.”
It didn’t take long for Marrone to pay her teammates back for their kindness, as she scored her first career goal in the Irish’s second game of the season at Archbishop Wood in Pennsylvania. Suddenly, Marrone knew that she belonged on the varsity. Scoring that goal was “amazing,” she said.
It amazed her even more knowing she was the top returning scorer for 2022.
“Coming back knowing that I was going to be that person, that leading scorer like Sarah was last year, was just really…it was crazy,” she said. “I was nervous, but being in that position where they count on you to score was exciting.”
Marrone has been consistent this year, putting up at least one point in every gameas Notre Dame outscored its opponents 23-3 in its first five games.
Harris feels that Marrone has shown ample growth from last year. She points out that while the sophomore does not look confident in her expressions and the way she does things, she has an inner confidence along with an inner fire to always improve. She was, however, a little nervous about trying to improve on clocking in the Irish’s annual preseason mile run.
“She had the best time last year as a freshman, even beating out all our seniors,” Harris said. “I had told them during the summer they were going to have to run that mile and ‘Your goal is to beat your time from last year.’ You should have seen her face. It was like ‘Oh no, I don’t know if I could beat that time.’ I would catch her after our workouts running the track because she needed to do that for herself. She’s just a go-getter.”
Which is why, when given the choice to be on varsity, she went and got it. And it’s paying off a year later.
“I have experience playing varsity and I got so much better from just that one varsity season,” she said. “And I feel comfortable with Coach Harris. I’m definitely more confident.”
And that quiet confidence is helping Marrone make a difference once again this season.
Sophomore field hockey player Ellie Marrone has been starting since her freshman season. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
