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wilmettebeacon.com SPORTS
the wilmette beacon | July 25, 2019 | 39
Going Places
Three-sport star Forester picks MIT field hockey
Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 2 days ago
22nd Century Media FILE PHOTO
1st-and-3
three STARS OF THE
WEEK.
1. Jack Liepert
(above). The
Wilmette Waves
pitcher threw four
innings of onerun,
three-hit ball,
while striking out
five and walking
none in a win over
Loyola.
2. Paige Forester.
The recent
NSCDS alumna
will play field
hockey at the
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology
starting this
upcoming fall.
3. Kelly Maday.
The New Trier
alumna enters
her senior year at
the University of
Illinois Urbana-
Champaign
looking to
lead the Illini
to the NCAA
Tournament.
Michael Wojtychiw
Sports Editor
North Shore Country
Day has been on one of
its best athletic success
stretches its ever had, if not
the best.
A big part of that has
been the play of Paige Forester,
a three-sport standout
at the Winnetka school,
who played field hockey,
basketball and soccer for
the Raiders.
Despite playing three
sports, Forester had to
make up her mind on which
one she wanted to pursue in
college.
The winner?
Field hockey.
After playing soccer
since she was 5, she
picked up field hockey as
a freshman at North Shore
because she had to play a
fall sport and thanks to the
encouragement of her older
brother.
“Once I spent even just
a season on North Shore’s
team, I immediately fell in
love with the game, and the
potential that I thought I
had in being able to ... I just
really enjoyed it more than
I had enjoyed soccer,” she
said. “Right away, I knew
that I wanted to play field
hockey, and that I wanted
to play in college, even just
in ninth grade.
“It was definitely a risk
because I was, at the time,
a better soccer player but
I thought that if I put in
enough work, my field
hockey ability would be
able to surpass my soccer
ability. It was definitely
a risk, but I enjoyed field
hockey more so I didn’t
even think of it that way.
I just started to train more
in field hockey than in soccer.”
So with the decision to
play field hockey already
made, all that was left was
choosing where to play.
And thanks to a class
she took at Northwestern
University last year that
focused on electrical engineering
and computer science,
the decision to attend
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology seemed almost
as easy.
“It was always my dream
to study engineering in
college, and when I also
wanted to pursue playing
field hockey in college,
MIT right away became
the clear first choice for me
because of the field hockey
opportunities I could have
there, and the engineering
opportunities,” she said.
Even though she started
playing field hockey at a
later age, she realized she
had the opportunity to play
about halfway through her
high school career.
“I went to my first recruiting
showcase, I think,
after my sophomore season,”
she said. ”At that
point, I really did not feel
ready, and I just felt super
out of place at that showcase.
“Then, I went to another
one the summer before my
junior year, so just a few
months after that, and I just
felt as I was playing that ...
I just felt so passionate and
happy while I was playing
it that it made me play so
much better. I think at that
moment, I knew what I was
able to do and that if I continued
to talk to coaches,
and putting in work on my
own, that I would be able to
play in college.”
In the past couple years,
Forester has been on two
soccer state runner-ups,
multiple top-four field
hockey finishes and multiple
basketball regional
title winners. That’s something
that hasn’t been lost
by her or anyone at the
school really. Along with
that success above, the girls
tennis team has also won
two straight state titles, the
school’s first state titles in
any girls sport.
Forester feels that a reason
for that has been the
continuity of the teams, as
well as the relationships
they’ve been able to build
on and off the field.
“I think really what it
was, this year and last year,
and the past few years,
there’s been almost a wave
of girls on field hockey and
soccer teams, and basketball
even, where it’s like
we’re all such good friends
outside of our sport, where
we’ll hang out during
school and we all actually
enjoy being with each other,”
she said. “I think that’s
NSCDS alumna Paige Forester will play her collegiate
field hockey at MIT. PHOTO SUBMITTED
one of the great advantages
of going to a small school,
where your teammates
are some of your closest
friends.
“For soccer, we were basically
the same team going
from my junior year to my
senior year, which made
us super experienced and
we knew what was coming.
Same thing with field
hockey, from sophomore to
junior year we had almost
an identical starting lineup,
which gave us such an advantage
of knowing each
other so well and recognizing
what our teammates’
needs are, and being able
to predict on the field, even
tactically, sensing where
our teammates were.”
Forester will go to MIT
in mid-August and plans
on studying electrical engineering
and computer
science, thanks to that class
she took at Northwestern.
Even though coding
was difficult at first, it was
something that by the end
of the class, she was going
home and wanting to work
more on what she was doing
in class.
“On another end, I think
it’s one of the fields in engineering
that is underrepresented
by women, and
I’m really intrigued by that,
and I want to pursue a field
where I can be doing something
different than what is
expected.”
Listen Up
“I’ve been feeling comfortable at the plate, right
from the beginning of the summer.”
Drew Robinson — Wilmette Waves outfielder on his summer
performance.
tunE in
What to watch this week
GOLF: It’s time to hit the links and get a couple of
rounds in while the weather is nice.
• Visit any of your local park districts and hit the
ball onto the green this summer.
Index
35 - North Shore Athlete Competition
34 - Athlete of the Week
Fastbreak is compiled by Sports Editor Michael
Wojtychiw, m.wojtychiw@22ndcenturymedia.com.