Junior field hockey player Chris McGinley is very goal oriented — literally.
Yet to her the stats mean very little.
“I hate that stuff,” McGinley said of records and statistics. “I play to have fun, and if I make a goal it is for the team, not for a record. I always set goals for myself, but they aren’t for my benefit. It is how I can best help the team.”
She is the team’s leading goal scorer with 19 goals this season and is only four goals from breaking the single-season scoring record. McGinley has done this in only 13 games.
Most would expect that McGinley would be pretty excited about all of these accomplishments, and should be counting the goals until she breaks the next record.
Not McGinley.
McGinley is modest to say the least, and does not like to talk about herself. She did, however, have a lot to say about the Lady Lions’ bout with Old Dominion tomorrow and No. 6 North Carolina on Sunday.
“I am realy psyched about Old Dominion,” McGinley said. “We were close to beating them last year, and I think we can do it this year.”
Last year, the Lady Lions played Old Dominion in their first game of the season. McGinley scored the first goal, and in a fit of enthusiasm, she jumped straight into the air, and did a bicycle kick.
“I was so excited,” McGinley said. “I thought I was going to jump over the cage. It made me realize that we could get by them, and I would like to see the same happen this year. We are going to go crazy tomorrow. They have everything to lose, we’ve got nothing to lose.”
If she starts out the scoring like she did last year, McGinley will tie her coach, Char Morett at No. 4 on the all time scorers list. McGinley has 49 career goals, and she still has an entire year of eligibilty to top that list. McGinley said that this or any other record is just not a priority of hers.
“If she were concerned with the stats, that would be more pressure on her,” co-captain Jen Stewart said. “If she felt the pressure, she would have to try to score, and then I don’t think she would score as much.”
To her teammates, McGinley seems relaxed and in control.
“I am so jealous of her,” said her roommate and fellow junior Kirt Benedict. “She is always so relaxed, everything just comes to her so naturally.”
McGinley sees things quite differently, and said she is constantly thinking when she is on the field.
“I don’t know about being relaxed,” McGinley said. “Field hockey is a very tense sport for me. I am constantly thinking of my strengths and weaknesses, and I try to work on them every time I touch the ball.”
McGinley must do a lot of work. Any time a ball is in motion, McGinley is usually somewhere close.
“She comes out of nowhere and makes things happen,” Stewart said. “She is always where the action is.”
Rather than bragging about her record breaking skills, and her fantastic stick play, McGinley is just thankful that she has the opportunity to play for Penn State. She above all wants to make sure she keeps the fun in field hockey.
“When it becomes anything but fun, it is work not sports,” McGinley said. “I think a lot of people forget about that, but that is what it is for me.”