GLASTONBURY – Addie Infante went to her first field hockey clinic only because her older sister Abbey was going and Abbey didn’t want to go by herself.
“I was like, ‘OK, why not? I’ll join you,’” Addie said. “Then I really loved it.”
Abbey never played again. But the experience changed Addie, who played travel soccer. She eventually stopped playing soccer and committed full time to field hockey.
Now she is one of two players from Connecticut who will play for UConn next year. But first, she is finishing up her senior year for Glastonbury (10-1), ranked seventh in this week’s state coaches field hockey poll.
Infante, who was a National Field Hockey Coaches Association Regional All-American last year, has 13 assists and 11 goals for the Guardians. Last year, she led the team with 17 assists, which tied the single season record for the program.
“She’s unbelievable,” Glastonbury coach Maureen Perkins said. “She is without a doubt the most skilled player I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach. She is technically, fundamentally sound almost in every way. There’s nothing she can’t do and nothing she doesn’t do well consistently.”
Perkins, who is in her 25th season of coaching at Glastonbury, was one of the coaches at the field hockey clinic Addie and her sister attended. Perkins remembered her as a “tiny little thing with her stick.” Addie said she was 11 or 12 at the time.
Addie liked everything about it – “The community, the girls, the coaches. The whole environment,” she said.
Infante, who has 39 career assists and 29 goals, came in skilled as a freshman but Perkins brought her along slowly because there were other talented players.
“We didn’t need her immediately to do everything,” Perkins said. “Each year, she takes on more and more and more responsibility and this year is the most because she is a senior and she is a captain. That is the expectation.”
Infante runs the show from her center midfield position.
“She sets up the attack,” Perkins said. “She makes sure people are in the positions they need to be in. And she elevates everybody’s play. Kids are more successful because she can put balls where they need to go or because she can set things up.
“She takes a lot of pressure off everybody else because she draws so much attention.”
On Tuesday night, Infante had two assists in a 6-0 win over Wethersfield.
“She’s got incredible stick skills and field awareness,” Wethersfield coach Colleen Budaj said. “Defenders struggle with her because if you go in too quick, she’s already past you. If you let her come up on you, she has the moves to tie defenders up.”
Last year, the Guardians advanced to the Class LL semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Staples, 2-0.
Infante and Staples’ Emma Larit are the two state players who will play at UConn next fall. The Huskies (11-1) are ranked seventh in the country. Infante committed in January of her junior year.
“It’s a huge deal for a Connecticut kid to commit early to go to UConn,” Perkins said. “That was her dream, and she gets to live out her dream.”