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 (Photo courtesy of Yale Sports Publicity) caption:
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Stuart Alum Driscoll Energized Yale on Two Fronts In Earning School's Award for Senior Sportswomen
By Bill Alden
Over the last four years, the players on the Yale University field hockey and women's lacrosse teams knew they had to be on their toes at all times during practice sessions.
If a member of one of those squads went on cruise control for a moment, she faced the possibility of being outhustled by a 5'3 dynamo named Sarah Driscoll.
The speedy Driscoll hit the fields running at New Haven in the fall of 2001 and never let up for a minute until after her final lacrosse game this spring.
Driscoll, a Stuart Country Day School alum, ended her Yale field hockey career as the program's all-time assists leader with 42. The midfielder earned All-Ivy recognition all four years, including being named as a unanimous first-team selection in 2004.
On the lacrosse field, Driscoll started every game at midfield her last two seasons. This past spring, she scored a career-high 27 points and was selected as the team's MVP in a vote by the players.
Before graduating last month, Driscoll received the crowning honor of her college career when she was presented with the 2005 Nellie Pratt Elliot Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior female athlete at the school.
With a knowing chuckle, Driscoll acknowledged that she pushed the envelope with her zeal for sports.
"I was really competitive," said Driscoll, who scored three goals and had six assists in her final field hockey campaign. "Even in practice sessions, I'd be diving all over the field. I was kind of intense and crazy even for a Division I athlete."
For Driscoll, winning the Elliot Award was the reward for her non-stop effort. "I worked so hard for four years," said Driscoll. "I was so surprised when I got it. It was a really fantastic way to end things. It symbolizes the kind of experience I've had here."
When Driscoll entered Yale, she couldn't have envisioned the way things ultimately turned out. "I came here hoping to play both sports but I wasn't sure if I could," recalled Driscoll. "I found that in terms of time management, I did my best work when I was in season. The mental aspect was the toughest. Being in season almost year-round is tough because there is so much emotion involved."
Driscoll's experience at Stuart armed her with the diligence and love of competition needed to juggle two sports and a daunting academic load.
"Stuart instilled a work ethic in me," said Driscoll, who took up field hockey as a freshman at Stuart and ended up being one of the top players in the Mercer County area by her senior year.
"In some ways it was tougher than college since you are going from 6a.m. to 11p.m. My love for sports goes back to my time at Stuart. I can't say enough about Missy Bruvik. She was my first field hockey coach and she helped me learn to love the game."
Bruvik, for her part, didn't take long to realize that she had something special on her hands in Driscoll.
"She was a starter from day one," said Bruvik, who frequently invokes Driscoll as a role model to her current players regarding what can be accomplished at the college level. "She played every minute of every game for the next four years. I couldn't get her off the field. She was such a catalyst for us."
Driscoll stepped into the same role at Yale, according to women's lacrosse coach Amanda O'Leary. "Sarah's work ethic is unbelievable," said O'Leary, who has guided the Yale lacrosse program the last 12 seasons.
"We have had no player who tries harder than her or who strives more for excellence. She gave 100 percent in every minute of every practice and every game."
Driscoll's fiery approach rubbed off on her teammates. "Sarah leads by example," added O'Leary. "When she is out there diving for balls, that pulls her teammates up and gets them to play the same way."
The respect of her teammates has turned into a deep mutual affection. "I've never seen a player who has such a close relationship with her teammates," asserted O'Leary. "She is such a good person. She is there when you need a shoulder to cry on and she is there to help you celebrate."
While O'Leary would have loved to have seen Driscoll concentrate exclusively on lacrosse, she concluded that it was best for everybody concerned that Driscoll played two sports at Yale.
"She was obviously a very good field hockey player," said O'Leary, a two-sport star herself in field hockey and lacrosse during her college days at Temple. "She always came to lacrosse in tip-top shape. As a dual sport athlete, she had a real good game sense. What she brought to both sports was more important than her possibly being a better lacrosse player. She touched many more people by playing both sports."
From her vantage point, Driscoll feels that playing both sports made her a more valuable player overall.
"I think it helped me," said Driscoll, who considers Yale's ECAC title in 2002 as her biggest field hockey highlight and the Bulldog lacrosse team's triumph in 2003 over eventual national champion Princeton as the sweetest moment of her lax career.
"I didn't have the best stickwork in lacrosse. My strengths were game sense and big speed. With the type of player that I am, playing year-round helped keep me in that game shape."
The on-field experience was just a part of what Driscoll gained from her involvement with the two programs.
"Playing both sports was unbelievable," asserted Driscoll, a history of science and history of medicine major.
"I learned life lessons of juggling things and how to manage time. The friendships and bonds I made with my teammates are the most special part of it. I'm living with three of my lacrosse teammates after graduation. I know these are friendships that will last."
In the final analysis, Driscoll's peripatetic existence at Yale was her way of maximizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"It excites me that I have been able to find things that give me so much joy," said Driscoll who will be working at New York Presbyterian Hospital over the next year while she takes the MCATs and then applies for medical school.
"I have been blessed to have incredible teammates and incredible coaches. I have been lucky to have things about which I am so passionate."
Yale has been lucky to have a player and leader like Driscoll grace not one but two programs.
