Two straight Section VI finals losses left a ghost over the Clarence field hockey program. This year, fueled by a renewed joy and the bond of two juniors, the team feels different.
The numbers are crisp and undeniable: 9-1. Ranked third in the Western New York coaches poll, Clarence has produced a record that speaks to efficiency and dominance with nine shutouts this season. For coach Katherine Palmiter and her players, the current success is less about the goals scored and more about the ghosts they are trying to outrun.
The shadow is long and defined by two bitter years. In 2023, the Red Devils made the Section VI Class A final and fell. Last year, having shifted classifications, they returned to the Class B final, only to suffer another defeat. Two trips, two heartbreaks.
This season, back in Class A, the goal is not just to return to the section championship game, but to finish, to finally claim the title that has slipped through their grasp twice, a heavy, invisible burden carried by every stick on the turf.
“Last year was a little bit of rebuilding,” Palmiter said. “We lost some games and needed to find confidence entering the offseason.”
Confidence, like chemistry, can’t be drilled. It must be forged. That’s what Palmiter sees as the defining characteristic of the 2025 squad.
“I think the girls have connected more this season than they have last season,” she says. “We’ve already scored more goals and we’re communicating and working effectively.”
Palmiter knows the game extends beyond the turf lines.
“There’s lots of stuff that happens on and off the field,” she said. “We just need to manage that and make sure once we get on the field all the other stuff doesn’t matter.”
Ensuring the team remains a family, even when frustration threatens to turn inward, is a coach’s quiet fight.
The visible proof of the connective tissue lives in the hands of juniors Alexandra Schulz and Madeline Ramirez.
Schulz, with 14 goals and five assists this season, embodies the team’s shift toward offensive potency.
“This season we’re doing better scoring goals,” Schulz said. “Our offense has gotten a lot stronger and we’re connecting as a team.”
Ramirez, who anchors the connection with four goals and a staggering 11 assists, sees the foundation laid away from the game clock. This past weekend, the team went out for breakfast. They plan pasta dinners. These are not mandated exercises; they are the moments that create the necessary, frictionless trust.
“We have a positive environment and work really well together,” Ramirez said.
Their partnership is a study in complementary motion as the two have mastered feeding off each other.
“Sometimes we meet at the turf together and do a lot of five and go passes up the field,” Schulz said.
Ramirez confirms the unspoken communication: “She’s really good carrying the ball up the field. I’ll call for the ball if I’m open and she knows I’m already there. That communication is there.”
The effortless flow is what translates the breakfast bonding sessions into third-ranked status. It is why Palmiter calls the duo “great,” adding with obvious excitement, “I’ll have them for another year.”
For the players, the losses are not forgotten; they are fuel. They’re the reference point that gives this 9-1 record its urgency.
“The last two years, we went to sectionals and they were two really hard losses,” Schulz said. “I think coming back stronger this year and using what we learned to be stronger and win sectionals.”
Winning is the final chapter, but the current joy is the immediate reward. For Ramirez, this season has been special precisely because of the environment they’ve built.
“I love going to practice every day and seeing my best friends,” Ramirez said. “It’s a fun time of year and it’s been extra fun this year and feels fun.”
The path ahead is clear, if daunting.
“The hope is sectionals and making another run to the final,” Palmiter said.
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Clevis Murray
Sports Reporter
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