Field Hockey: Solid as a Rock

Not quite Marshawn Lynch’s “Beast Mode” grill, but that’s pretty cool. Haleigh Rock gets a +5 for mouthpiece flair. (For anyone who hasn’t watched “Office Space,” go ahead and search “pieces of flair.”)  

And the Bay Shore defender is solid as a Rock... literally.

Her older brother, Griffin Rock, was a star football and lacrosse player at Bay Shore, and last spring received the Butch Dellecave Award as Suffolk’s top male scholar-athlete. Another brother, Mike, played lacrosse at Duke. Haleigh’s cousin, Lucas Rock, is the Marauders quarterback. So, yeah, the family has produced some solid athletes.

Haleigh does a little quarterbacking herself as the sweeper for Bay Shore’s field hockey team. Her responsibilities include calling out plays and letting her defense know which players to mark, defender Elise Ambos said.

“She’s so smooth, she’s calm, she’s smart,” Bay Shore coach Mary Drago said of the junior. “A lot of times your best defender might play up the in the field. We have her as our sweeper just because of how confident she is. She controls our defense.”

That defense has allowed five goals in six games (an average of 0.83) thus far.

“Defensively our team has not let a lot of people into the circle,” Drago said. “That’s in large part because of her. A lot of times the sweeper doesn't get a lot of credit, but she’s been tremendous for us. She’s really solid as a rock.”

Rock star.