SBR FIELD HOCKEY: Megan Salsinha hopes to finish amazing career with state title

It didn't take Leslie Caito-Jones very long to recognize a special athlete.

Owner/director of the Providence-based Allegiance Field Hockey program, Jones had a new face at one of her summer camps four-and-a-half years ago. Megan Salsinha had been invited by her Westport Middle School friend Sydney Swain to check out Allegiance. 

Jones immediately saw the athleticism, the grit. "I told her mom, 'She has a tremendous upside. If she plays field hockey, she's going places," Jones recalled.

Jones has proven to be a prophet. Salsinha has indeed gone places. She is this newspaper's two-time field hockey player of the year and this season led the South Coast Conference in scoring. Salsinha was named SCC player of the year for 2017. She said she will soon be signing an NCAA national letter of intent to play field hockey at Division 1 UMass Lowell. This Saturday, Salsinha will complete her high school field hockey career by leading the Raiders (22-1-0) into the Division 1 state championship game against Nashoba Regional, at Worcester Polytechnical Institute.

Asked what makes Salsinha such a special player, Jones starts, "Oh boy. So many things. First and foremost, she's an outstanding student-athlete. She's an incredible competitor, relentless on the ball. Tremendous speed. The kid never gives up. She has great command on the field."

Ranked sixth in SBR's senior class, Salsinha is also an outstanding 400-meter hurdler and middle distance runner in indoor and outdoor track and field and continued to play club soccer through this past summer. After attending the Allegiance summer camp in 2014, Salsinha the eighth grader joined Swain on the Westport Middle School field hockey team. After the middle school season she joined Allegiance. (Swain just signed an NLI to play field hockey at Division 1 Bryant University.)

About six months into Salsinha's Allegiance life, Jones urged her mother to have her join the club at a tournament at Disney World. "I just said to her, 'She's going to take off.' She's never looked back," Jones said.

 

In addition to her skills, speed and tenacity, Salsinha, Jones said, brings big-time toughness to the field. Jones plays her at flyer on opposing penalty corners, meaning she is often running right at foes who are preparing to unload a big hit. "You're going head on into the ball," Jones said. "She really is fearless."

Salsinha said that despite her growing love of field hockey, it was still a tough decision about whether to play field hockey or soccer as a freshman at SBR.

SBR coach Jen Crook is grateful she chose the former.

Salsinha immediately found a spot in the starting lineup, displaying excellent stick skills. She played right midfield as a freshman, center mid as a sophomore and has patrolled center forward the last two seasons.

As her game has progressed over the past few years, Salsinha has developed a trademark spinning reverse stick, making her a scoring threat even when she has her back to the cage. The hit requires bending at the hips and knees and lowering the hands virtually to the ground. "I learned that at summer camp after my sophomore year and I perfected it over the summer last year," she said.

SBR field hockey vs Walpole. Salsinha shook off the hit. @sb_raiders @megan_salsinha pic.twitter.com/BZ8GPRGiYu

— Greg Sullivan (@GregSullivanHN) November 11, 2018//
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For all her field hockey success, Salsinha insists on passing the praise on to Jones, whom, she says, knows when to be tough, when to be encouraging, and when to just be a friend.

"She's basically why I'm the player I am today," Salsinha said.

Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.