We are very excited to announce that Samantha Walther has committed to NESCAC Hamilton College for the fall of 2014! Sam has worked with Coach Honick since 2002, when she was just a mite while attending the Rick Heinz Goalie Schools. “She’s as feisty now as she was then, and it’s a real honor to have worked with her for this amount of time. I can’t wait to see Sam in a college uniform next season” claims Honick. Congratulations to Sam and her family for the years of devotion to the goal, best of luck the rest of the season.

by Paula G. Krimsky, Associate Director of Communications, the Gunnery Prep School

Girls’ Hockey Team: Ready for the Ice

Samantha Walther ’14, a goalie and four-year veteran on the team, has just accepted an offer from Hamilton College for next year. “Just two weeks after the coach called and invited me to spend an overnight, I committed to apply Early Decision … I just loved the school.” Although Samantha really loves writing for Mr. Benson in her English classes, she is probably going to go for pre-med in college.

Samantha, who is from Annapolis, MD, took up hockey at the tender age of four, playing goalie in street hockey for a neighbor’s son whose dad was an NHL player. The neighbor encouraged her to play on the ice and she knew right away it was the sport for her. She played on her first all-girl team when she came to The Gunnery. She heard about The Gunnery while playing on Team Maryland with Logan Adams ’15.

A spirited player, Samantha has been elected to the National Youth Select Development Camps in Minnesota for the Southeast District every year since she was in middle school. She missed one year’s participation because of a torn MCL and was devastated this past April when a similar injury kept her from trying out for the National U-18 team, an election to which is a precursor to consideration for the Olympic team. “I noticed a problem after we won the New England Championship game last spring, but an MRI revealed the worst,” she laments.

Sam has been with Coach Geary since he began with the girls’ team, “He really turned the team around. He knows more about the game than anyone I’ve ever met. He knows how to break every system we come up against.”