Casey Howard leads field hockey to 5-2 start

Senior Delaware field hockey captain Casey Howard was awarded the Army ROTC Best of the Blue Hens Athlete of the Week award  for her performance against Brown University on Sept. 6. Howard scored five goals in the 10-2 rout of Brown.

"I feel like I was just in the right place at the right time," Howard said of her performance.

Hens forward Kimmy Schlezes expressed a similar opinion about Howard's success in the game against Brown.

"I think our players set her up with some great passes," she said. "I also think she is so intense that she just never stops. She just keeps going, going regardless of the score."

Besides making an impression on Brown, Howard has also made one on head coach Carol Miller over the past five years.

"Invaluable," Miller said of her senior forward. "Her work ethic everyday at practice just inspires others to pick it up."

Howard's work ethic is certainly paying off. She leads the team in goals, assists and points, but attributes her success to the core of players around her.

"My teammates, in a sense, have made me more successful," she said. "It's been nice playing with a lot of the same people for four years."

Schlezes echoes Miller's opinion that Howard influences how other players perform. She defined Howard as a quiet leader who allows her playing to speak for her.

"She works hard every day, and it's contagious," Schlezes said. "She definitely helps me pick up my intensity. She just makes you better playing around her."

Howard is coming off a hiatus due to an injury that forced her to redshirt the 2008 season.

In 2007, the field hockey squad finished with a 10-9 record. In 2008, the team struggled and ended with a 3-15 mark. This season the team is back to its winning ways with Howard back on board and a 4-2 record.

"She's on the radar of every team we go up against," Miller said. "I say very jokingly, but I've said this before, she's my Joe Flacco. She can do it all, but, like Joe, he needed players around him to be successful."

Howard's development as a player over the past five years, including her redshirt season, has been more mental than physical.

"She seems to have developed a maturity to learn how to now motivate people around her, not only by her actions, but also by her words," Miller said.

Miller claims Howard's most valuable leadership quality is her relentless work ethic both on the practice field and at games. She has at least one goal in four out the five games played this season.

Despite the disappointing 2008 campaign, Miller, Howard, and Schlezes all have a positive outlook on the 2009 season. 

"The team is great," Schlezes said. "The energy is really positive. Everyone is working really hard. We just want to win. That's what we came to do.

Howard feels the team has a great foundation of veteran players who can help out the newcomers.

"We have 10 seniors on the team so [there's] a lot of experience," Howard said. "I'm the only captain this year for the team, but with 10 seniors it makes it so much easier because everyone has kind of fallen into that leadership role."

Throughout Howard's career, conference play has been an Achilles heel for the Delaware field hockey team. In the three previous years Howard was an active player, the team went 8-16 in Colonial Athletic Association play. They intend to right the ship against CAA opponent Virginia Commonwealth University on Friday, September 25th, with Howard leading the way.

"She's a coach's dream," Miller said.