Fall underclassmen athletes to lookout for in 2022

As Lehigh’s spring semester comes to an end, fall athletes look forward to the upcoming 2022-23 season.

Some of these underclassmen athletes include freshmen Guusje Hogendoorn, Hope Flanegin and Connor Goodyear.

Hogendoorn is a midfielder and defender on the Lehigh field hockey team. She said she hopes to improve her stamina in order to play midfield for longer stretches of games next season.

“I do like midfield more because you can do a little bit of both; you can do defense a little bit and play on the attacking side which is fun,” Hogendoorn said.

Hogendoorn is from Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, where she played at the national top-level in U16-1. 

Hogendoorn’s high school did not have a field hockey team, so she played for a club team instead. She said it prepared her for the intensity of playing at the collegiate level.

“It was still a different thing coming from the Netherlands to here because everything is so much faster,” Hogendoorn said. “The game is faster, and everything is more focused on strength and conditioning.”

During her first season on the team, Hogendoorn said she learned a valuable lesson about the importance of team work – even off of the field. 

Flanegin is on the Lehigh women’s soccer team. She plays midfield, which is a position the team is preparing to utilize more in the fall, according to new head coach Lauren Calabrese.

“(Calabrese’s) really focusing on technical and playing through the middle, which is what I did in high school and club so I enjoy this style of play more,” Flanegin said.

Flanegin played on a club team in high school and on her high school team, which she said was similar to Lehigh in terms of school spirit.

Flanegin was a four-year varsity starter and two-year varsity captain at Spring-Ford Area High School in Royersford, Pennsylvania.

“The style of play and competition level was definitely better in college, but the transition was still pretty smooth,” Flanegin said.

Flanegin said she is excited for the upcoming season in order to help her teammates, specifically the incoming freshmen, navigate being a student athlete and teach them how to support each other.

“I am a freshman and know I’m not going to be perfect and I’m going to mess up,” Flanegin said. “It’s a new team, it’s a new experience, so I think I did well with that and adjusting to diversity.”

Goodyear is on the swim and dive team. He swims the individual medley, butterfly and freestyle events.

The transition from high school to collegiate swimming was not a large change for Goodyear. He said his club and high school swim teams had him training on a schedule similar to his current Lehigh routine.

“I would say the main difference was a lot more focus on lifting here,” Goodyear said. “We do a lot more in the weight room than I did previously.”

Goodyear also knew sophomores Alex Patti, from his high school and Nicholas Gewartowski, from his club team before joining Lehigh swim, which he said was helpful in getting acclimated as a freshman.

Goodyear said he found the coaching style to be helpful. He said the team breaks into groups to specialize on different skills and strokes during practice. 

Something that Goodyear said he focused on this year was showing up to practice everyday with an open mind and being ready to put in the work — in and out of the pool.