Steinert High’s Tara Dunfee makes a save Sept. 18, 2014 during a 6-0 loss to Hopewell Valley. (Staff photo by Rob Anthes.)
In looking back on Tara Dunfee’s fledgling days in field hockey, it’s amazing she stuck with it to the point she is one of the most effective goalies in the Colonial Valley Conference this season.
Dunfee was a soccer player who thought it was “never really my place. I never felt really comfortable or confident.” So she decided to try field hockey as a freshman at Steinert because most players were all on the same level—inexperienced—and she felt playing for freshman coach Nicole Kasian Caruso “was the best way to start out high school because of how sweet she was.”
At the start of practice, Caruso asked who wanted to play goalie.
“Me and Kelly Schwager kind of looked at each other,” Dunfee said. “We were like ‘Well, we both hate running, so why not?’”
Schwager soon discovered she hated being a goalie more than she hated running so she went back to the field. That left it up to Dunfee, who might have had second thoughts the moment she donned the equipment.
“The first time I put on my goalie gear my first thought was ‘Holy crap, this stuff wreaks!’” Dunfee said with a laugh. “It was really hard to move in it. It feels like you have to wobble to get around, and I’m sure I looked ridiculous. I remember all the girls laughing at how silly I walked.
“But now, whenever I show the underclassmen what goes where the first time they try it out, I giggle too. You can’t help it.”
When she finally wobbled on to the practice field, Dunfee termed it “a great memory.”
“I wasn’t falling all over the place or tripping,” she said. “I remember after practice, Mrs. Caruso coming up to me and saying ‘Dunfee, I think you might actually have a knack for this.’”
It was a good assessment by Caruso, but it took a while for the potential to actually play out. As good as the first practice went, Dunfee’s first game was quite the opposite.
“It was an absolute nightmare!” she said. “It was an away game at Robbinsville, and I didn’t have a helmet in my bag. I also didn’t know goalies needed a mouth guard, so I didn’t even bring one. I got away with it for about 20 minutes until the ref noticed, and then she called a (penalty) stroke.
“In my first game, I didn’t even know what a stroke was at the time. I was shaking so bad but the girl hit it to my right side, and I saved it with my stick. I’m pretty sure my eyes were closed because I was so afraid.”
Caruso, a former Spartan player, looks back on that day with amusement since it was also her debut.
“She ended up being goalie for my first coaching experience ever, and boy was that an experience,” Caruso said. “Luckily, my mom was able to swing by the school and bring her the helmet just in time for the start of the game. And she was great!”
Caruso, however, was not privy to “eyes closed” method of saving strokes considering the praise she had for that moment.
“I was really impressed how much of a natural she was,” the coach said. “I was especially impressed that she stopped a penalty stroke in her first game with a stick save in the air. Obviously, everyone can always improve their skills and grow, but I definitely saw something there early on.”
And it has stayed there ever since. Dunfee played JV as a sophomore and junior, and saw time as the varsity back-up to Grace Harkness last year as well. She would have gotten more varsity time, but was Steinert’s only JV goalie and had to stay there.
In Steinert’s 1-5 start this season, opposing offenses were launching massive barrages of shots at Dunfee. She had 78 saves in the six games, an average of 13 per game, and had 25 against Middletown South and 22 against Allentown.
“I actually can’t think of a glaring weakness off the top of my head,” coach Alyson Setzer said. “She has a drive to improve, a positive attitude, team spirit, and a willingness to help teammates. She always offered to help every new freshman goalie that came through the program. She also has athleticism and enthusiasm.
“I always just appreciate when my freshman players put on all those pads and try to stop balls from going in the net for their team. I know they do the best they can with very little experience. Tara tried to gain experience in the offseason by going to camps and trying to improve her skills the best she can.”
The summer prior to her junior year, Dunfee attended the NIKE camp at the Lawrenceville School. The thermometer was at 100 during that time, and the goalies spent four straight days wearing their gear for seven hours.
“It was brutal,” Dunfee said. “There was a trainer there at all times making sure we weren’t getting dehydrated. My coach was a US National team indoor goalie. It was an amazing experience; she taught me a lot about angles and diving.”
“Tara was very excited about going to goalie camp,” Setzer said. “She came back a much more confident player. She brought back many drills to help the younger goalies, and seemed like she found her home in the cage.”
Dunfee had a high comfort level playing on the JV last year, as it was her second straight season under coach Lorraine Heisler. The two have developed a nice relationship that is still helpful when Heisler helps out as varsity assistant.
Dunfee also was the oldest player on the JV last year, which lifted her confidence level and her vocal chords.
“My freshman and sophomore year I was too quiet in the goal,” she said. “Not knowing any girls last year, I was like, ‘All right, they might hate me for yelling, but I’m the oldest and the goalie, and it’s time to grow up and take charge.’
“I love all of those girls now. They’ll still tell me stories of how they were terrified of me the first couple of weeks, until they realized that’s only me on the field, as soon as I step off, that serious screaming attitude goes away.”
This year, she has done an outstanding job of keeping the Spartans in games that might be blowouts by the end of the first half. With youth throughout the field, Steinert has had trouble getting the ball out of its zone on occasion and Dunfee has come up big under a barrage of shots.
“Tara is a very key player on our team,” Setzer said. “She is able to direct traffic in the backfield and make certain all opponents are covered. She has the confidence and skill to call for the ball and take on an opponent one v one. Her teammates trust her and do what they can to protect her and clear out her saves.”
Although coaches would like to see their team on constant attack, Dunfee says she enjoys the games more when she gets a ton of work instead of just standing and watching. Probably because it gives her more time to have to think when she’s not reacting to shots.
“I don’t think the hardest thing about being a goalie is a physical thing, it’s a mental one,” she said. “I get so into these games that I take every goal to heart. After every game I rethink all of the goals. I know there’s always something I could’ve done better.
“My best friend, Carly DeLisa (now a defender in field hockey), was the goalie for the soccer team we were on together for nine years so she knows how I feel, she knows me better than anyone else on the team. She came up to me during a halftime when we were down and said, ‘I know what you’re thinking, it’s not your fault. You are the last resort and you can’t let it get to you.’”
Setzer says that Dunfee is outgoing, dedicated in focus, and the veteran coach has taken great pride in the way she has grown as a player and person since her freshman year.
Dunfee claims that playing field hockey has made her high school career, thanks to the constant support of her teammates and coaches, and the laughs they share together.
“The best part of being a goalie is being able to play in the first place,” she said. “It is a blessing to be able to go out and play a game that I love every single day with some of my best friends and to be taught by amazing coaches. I know some people would do a lot of things just to be able to play any sport again. I never take it for granted.”
And it goes without saying that the second best part is, even if the equipment still wreaks, she has more than gotten used to wobbling around in it.
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