Indiana University Athletics
Student Spotlight: Mollie Getzfread
9/26/2016 9:43:00 AM | Field Hockey, General, Student-Athlete Services
By: Nick Reith
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Mollie Getzfread's field hockey odyssey began in her grandmother's yard during her early childhood.
It didn't begin specifically with the sport of field hockey. It did, however, begin with the field hockey stick.
Mollie, her cousins and friends in her township played a hand game known as box hockey. The game is played inside a box on the ground. Two people stand on opposite sides, attempting to move the ball through the sliders towards a goal on either end of the box. The game requires deft handwork and a knack for moving the ball with a hockey stick.
After a few summers of playing box hockey at her grandmother's house and around the township, Mollie grew familiar with skills that would suit her eventual field hockey career.
"I started playing with tha, when I was younger, and that got me familiar with a field hockey stick," Mollie said.
One thing that box hockey lacks, compared to field hockey, is a team element. The size of the game is suited for one-on-one competition, and the way it's played doesn't allow for any more than two people. Being part of a team is something Mollie sought, so she joined her first field hockey team in fourth grade.
From there, she played field hockey through her youth and high school years, taking off one year to try cheerleading in seventh grade. In her eighth grade year, Mollie once again picked up the field hockey stick and she hasn't put it down since.
Mollie's skills on the turf earned some recognition from coaches in the college ranks and letters began to arrive in her mailbox on the northwest side of Philadelphia. One letter, which came from a Big Ten program, stood out from the rest.
"It was after a nationals tournament," Mollie said. "I got a letter in the mail, a questionnaire. I had no idea about Indiana University or the Big Ten for that matter, so it was surprising. I asked one of my friends in school, 'Have you ever heard of IU?' and she assured me it was a great school."
By the time Mollie made her official visit, she was sold on making Bloomington her home for five years. The coaches, the look of the campus and playing in the Big Ten made the offer appealing, but it was the culture around the Indiana field hockey team that flipped the switch.
"When I came out here and saw how close the team was, it felt like another family," she said. "It has been amazing, the best five years of my life. The university has given me so much and opened so many opportunities for me."
After taking a redshirt in her freshman season, Mollie has rarely left the turf. She appeared in all 19 games of her first season, making her first career start in Indiana's game versus Rutgers.
From her second season in 2014 to this year, Mollie has been a regular figure for the Cream and Crimson. She has started in the Hoosiers' last 46 games, or the entirety of the 2014 season, the 2015 season and this season to date.
"Mollie is an ultimate team player," said head coach Amanda Janney. "She's always going to be an assist woman, and she'd probably be more happy getting the setup play than finishing it off and getting her name in the newspaper. That's not something she's concerned with. She's a workhorse, she covers the field and works really hard to set up other people. You want to see these talented (student-athletes) rewarded with goals because you know how hard they're working."
Mollie's teammates have voted her as one of the team captains for the past two seasons, citing her leadership on and off the turf. Although coach Janney doesn't select the team captains, it's clear to her why they chose Mollie two years in a row.
"She's a really good mentor," Janney said. "She's very level headed and a really good communicator with her teammates. She's so concerned with how well she's playing, but she also has her eye on the freshman next to her who might be struggling, and she's right away with helping them on and off the field."
That mentorship extends to Mollie's work in the IU Excellence Academy. Mollie is involved with the Hoosier HEROES peer mentor group, the Step UP! Bystander Intervention program and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). In the summer of 2015, Mollie took part in the Coach for College program, which sends IU students to Vietnam to teach athletics and life skills to underprivileged middle school students.
Hoosier HEROES is one of Mollie's favorite ways to get involved and give back. The program pairs an upperclassmen athlete with a freshman athlete to aid their transition to being a student at a nationally renowned university and a Division-I college athlete. Mollie has mentored IU water polo's Emily Lowe and IU baseball's Isaiah Pasteur, among others.
"One of my teammates, Hannah Boyer, was really into Hoosier HEROES," Mollie said. "I see her as a role model in my life, and she was so involved in the athletic department, so I try to look to her and follow in her footsteps."
Mollie has accumulated 13 assists in her career and currently ranks in the national top ten with seven assists over ten games this season. Mollie scored the first goal of her career in her 60th appearance, aiding Indiana to a 5-3 win this season versus New Hampshire.
It's not uncommon in field hockey to have a goal drought like that when playing where Mollie plays. As a central midfielder, her main tasks involve linking the defense to the forwards, managing opposing counterattacks, and creating space for others to advance. But she wouldn't have it any other way.
"I love it," Mollie said about life as a midfielder. "You have a lot of space with the ball and you can see the whole field. I get to run a lot, and I'm not necessarily ever out of position because I have the whole field to work with."
Oddly enough, Mollie's scoring goal was a product of her aiming for a teammate near the goal, and her hit deflected off of a defender into the net. Even when she's scoring goals, it comes from the intent of lifting up another teammate.
"I'm humbled that they think of me as a leader," Mollie said of her Indiana field hockey family. "I just try to do what I can do for the team, and I suppose leading comes along with that."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Mollie Getzfread's field hockey odyssey began in her grandmother's yard during her early childhood.
It didn't begin specifically with the sport of field hockey. It did, however, begin with the field hockey stick.
Mollie, her cousins and friends in her township played a hand game known as box hockey. The game is played inside a box on the ground. Two people stand on opposite sides, attempting to move the ball through the sliders towards a goal on either end of the box. The game requires deft handwork and a knack for moving the ball with a hockey stick.
After a few summers of playing box hockey at her grandmother's house and around the township, Mollie grew familiar with skills that would suit her eventual field hockey career.
"I started playing with tha, when I was younger, and that got me familiar with a field hockey stick," Mollie said.
One thing that box hockey lacks, compared to field hockey, is a team element. The size of the game is suited for one-on-one competition, and the way it's played doesn't allow for any more than two people. Being part of a team is something Mollie sought, so she joined her first field hockey team in fourth grade.
From there, she played field hockey through her youth and high school years, taking off one year to try cheerleading in seventh grade. In her eighth grade year, Mollie once again picked up the field hockey stick and she hasn't put it down since.
Mollie's skills on the turf earned some recognition from coaches in the college ranks and letters began to arrive in her mailbox on the northwest side of Philadelphia. One letter, which came from a Big Ten program, stood out from the rest.
"It was after a nationals tournament," Mollie said. "I got a letter in the mail, a questionnaire. I had no idea about Indiana University or the Big Ten for that matter, so it was surprising. I asked one of my friends in school, 'Have you ever heard of IU?' and she assured me it was a great school."
By the time Mollie made her official visit, she was sold on making Bloomington her home for five years. The coaches, the look of the campus and playing in the Big Ten made the offer appealing, but it was the culture around the Indiana field hockey team that flipped the switch.
"When I came out here and saw how close the team was, it felt like another family," she said. "It has been amazing, the best five years of my life. The university has given me so much and opened so many opportunities for me."
After taking a redshirt in her freshman season, Mollie has rarely left the turf. She appeared in all 19 games of her first season, making her first career start in Indiana's game versus Rutgers.
From her second season in 2014 to this year, Mollie has been a regular figure for the Cream and Crimson. She has started in the Hoosiers' last 46 games, or the entirety of the 2014 season, the 2015 season and this season to date.
"Mollie is an ultimate team player," said head coach Amanda Janney. "She's always going to be an assist woman, and she'd probably be more happy getting the setup play than finishing it off and getting her name in the newspaper. That's not something she's concerned with. She's a workhorse, she covers the field and works really hard to set up other people. You want to see these talented (student-athletes) rewarded with goals because you know how hard they're working."
Mollie's teammates have voted her as one of the team captains for the past two seasons, citing her leadership on and off the turf. Although coach Janney doesn't select the team captains, it's clear to her why they chose Mollie two years in a row.
"She's a really good mentor," Janney said. "She's very level headed and a really good communicator with her teammates. She's so concerned with how well she's playing, but she also has her eye on the freshman next to her who might be struggling, and she's right away with helping them on and off the field."
That mentorship extends to Mollie's work in the IU Excellence Academy. Mollie is involved with the Hoosier HEROES peer mentor group, the Step UP! Bystander Intervention program and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). In the summer of 2015, Mollie took part in the Coach for College program, which sends IU students to Vietnam to teach athletics and life skills to underprivileged middle school students.
Hoosier HEROES is one of Mollie's favorite ways to get involved and give back. The program pairs an upperclassmen athlete with a freshman athlete to aid their transition to being a student at a nationally renowned university and a Division-I college athlete. Mollie has mentored IU water polo's Emily Lowe and IU baseball's Isaiah Pasteur, among others.
"One of my teammates, Hannah Boyer, was really into Hoosier HEROES," Mollie said. "I see her as a role model in my life, and she was so involved in the athletic department, so I try to look to her and follow in her footsteps."
Mollie has accumulated 13 assists in her career and currently ranks in the national top ten with seven assists over ten games this season. Mollie scored the first goal of her career in her 60th appearance, aiding Indiana to a 5-3 win this season versus New Hampshire.
It's not uncommon in field hockey to have a goal drought like that when playing where Mollie plays. As a central midfielder, her main tasks involve linking the defense to the forwards, managing opposing counterattacks, and creating space for others to advance. But she wouldn't have it any other way.
"I love it," Mollie said about life as a midfielder. "You have a lot of space with the ball and you can see the whole field. I get to run a lot, and I'm not necessarily ever out of position because I have the whole field to work with."
Oddly enough, Mollie's scoring goal was a product of her aiming for a teammate near the goal, and her hit deflected off of a defender into the net. Even when she's scoring goals, it comes from the intent of lifting up another teammate.
"I'm humbled that they think of me as a leader," Mollie said of her Indiana field hockey family. "I just try to do what I can do for the team, and I suppose leading comes along with that."
Players Mentioned
Defender/Midfield
/ Field HockeyFB: Nico Radicic - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Drew Evans - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Bray Lynch - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Spring Practice - Curt Cignetti Press Conference
Thursday, April 16