Like many young athletes, Meredith Sholder of Fleetwood had an autograph of her hero, Rachel Dawson, many years ago. Like many, Sholder dreamed of being a field hockey Olympian like Dawson was in 2008.
But for Sholder, the dream faded for a period of time before she became reinspired a couple years ago.
“It’s crazy that, as a child, these are the things that I dreamed about,” Sholder said. “In high school and college, I kind of lost sight of that little girl dream. I had other things in life that I started to worry more about. To think about it today, how I got back on that track, to sit there today and talk to that girl that dreams can become a reality. It’s just a crazy feeling to express in words.”
Sholder is now officially an Olympian. A midfielder on the U.S. Women’s National Team for the past few years, Sholder was named to the U.S. roster that will compete July 27-Aug. 9 in the Paris Olympics.
She will be joined on the team by four Berks County high school products — Twin Valley’s Ashley Hoffman and Kelee Lepage, Hamburg’s Karlie Kisha and Oley Valley’s Phia Gladieux. Hoffman is one of the team’s co-captains.
Sholder, an Emmaus High School graduate, is the second Green Hornet field hockey Olympian, following Cindy Werley, a member of the 1996 team that went 0-5 in the Atlanta Games. Werley and Sholder followed similar paths, from Emmaus to the University of North Carolina to the national team.
Sholder had a record-breaking career at Emmaus with 217 goals scored, No. 7 all-time in the nation’s history, according to topofthecircle.com. She had 14 goals and 17 assists in her six years at North Carolina.
She played on multiple age-level national teams, but lost interest playing on that level because she felt that something was missing: the feel of a real team, to be precise.
“I was on the U.S. Junior team when I was younger, but I never really enjoyed it,” she said. “I like the whole team aspect of field hockey and feeling close with my teammates. I never got that from the junior program. It was really hard for me to go and participate and play my best. Once I got to college, I stopped doing the junior teams for Team USA. I just focused on the college team.”
She started thinking about playing on the highest level again when North Carolina was scrimmaging the national team in 2021. Greg Drake, a national team coach at the time, went out of his way to encourage Sholder to work with the national team because it needed some players for the Pro League, which is a regular non-Olympic competition between national teams around the world.
That, coupled with UNC coach Karen Shelton’s request that Sholder train with High Performance, a center that trains national teams, put her back in the mindset of reviving that Olympic dream.
Of course, her mother Jane had something to say, too.
“It meant a lot that [Drake] was verbalizing that they actually saw something in me and that [being on the national team] was a possibility,” Sholder said. “My mom helped me through my decision-making process. Why not? You have only one chance in your life to take advantage of this opportunity. You can go back to school whenever you want.
“It was such a different culture from the junior team,” she said. “It felt like an actual team with genuine teammates. Everyone supported you. Everyone was welcoming. I had a great experience.”
So Sholder, who turned 25 years old at the end of February, is now a full-time national team athlete. She wants to be a physician’s assistant, but that will have to wait. She is only young once.
The big moment for Team USA came in January when it took second place in an Olympic qualifier in Ramchi, India, thereby qualifying for the Olympics. Team USA was going to be an automatic qualifier for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, so getting there four years ahead of schedule was a welcome surprise.
Team USA did not qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo and made several organizational changes, including centralizing the team in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sholder sees the difference as the U.S. is more competitive on the world level.
“At some point before I joined the team, USA Field Hockey underwent a massive change,” Sholder said. “They brought in a new coaching staff [led by David Passmore of Ireland]. They wanted to make decisions because the U.S. team didn’t qualify for the last Olympics. We didn’t want to go downhill, so we brought in a new staff and had all of the athletes centralized in Charlotte. They made all the decisions to provide us with the resources that we need to excel.”
The U.S. has not fared well in the Pro League lately, going 1-14-1 in the current season. Sholder was named Player of the Match after Team USA’s 3-1 win over Great Britain on June 6.
Still, she had to wait for the official announcement that she was going to become an Olympian. Passmore had to trim the U.S. roster from 26 to 16 by June 10. Sholder said that she was confident of making the team but did not want to hurt her chances by talking about it.
She got the word through a Microsoft Teams message June 10. The roster, featuring several Pennsylvanians and former Lafayette College star Amanda Golin, was released to the public the next day.
“It was really exciting to be able to tell my family and have it be official and start being able to openly talk about going to the Olympics,” she said. “Before the list came out, I did not want to jinx myself. I never wanted to hypothetically talk about going to the Olympics. It felt a huge weight off my shoulders especially because I have been honing in on training in the last couple months. I’ve noticed a great amount of effort since I’ve been putting all of my effort into training. It was a really nice feeling and a good accomplishment to be proud of.”
Sholder has no team commitments other than working out and waiting until July 14, when the team heads to Ireland to train for a week before moving on to Paris on July 21.
“I remember when I was 12 years old and fangirl over the Olympians,” Sholder said. “When I was 13, I remember getting all of their autographs. I hung them up on my bedroom wall. I used to tell my family that I wanted to be an Olympian. My role model was Rachel Dawson.
“I want to express my extreme gratitude to all of the people who helped me get to this point,” she said. “People I especially want to shout out are [Emmaus coach] Sue Butz-Stavin, Karen Shelton and my family. I’m so grateful that they were a part of my life, and part of my journey. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them. These women left an imprint in my life.”
Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.
Source: Berkshire mont
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