Columbus, Ohio – The wind is whipping in her eyes and a cold steady rain is beating down upon her face as she makes her way up the slippery rain-soaked turf. Her eyes remain forward, observing everything, figuring out where to go next, ready to help her team, to make just one move. Then she sees the advantage and dribbles the ball forward and takes a hard shot burying the ball into the back of the goal past the sprawling defending goalkeeper to give her team another goal on which to build on.
And that’s what Ohio State Senior Midfielder Casey Cole does. She plays to her strengths and abilities, listens to her coaches, and does whatever is needed to help her team win. In her last 3 games, she has scored 5 goals for her Buckeyes which earned her Big Ten Offensive Player Of The Week.
Against Boston University, she scored the first two goals of the game for Ohio State and her first two of the season, putting the team in a position to pick up a 4-2 win over the then 19th ranked Terriers. This past weekend, she recorded two goals in the win over Ball State and one goal in the 5-0 victory over Lehigh, both in tough weather conditions.
Cole has also more than doubled her single-season record of two goals from last season to five goals so far this season. Coming into the 2018 campaign, she had four career goals and has now scored five goals in the first six games of the season. And she doesn’t plan on letting up or stopping.
“I’m excited about the goals but I’m mainly just so glad I could help the team out,” Cole said after the Lehigh game. “I do whatever it takes to help my team.”
Cole has not only performed well on the turf but off it as well as she was named a 2017 Ohio State Scholar-Athlete and was named 2017 Academic All-Big Ten. She is majoring in Sociology but is not sure what she will do when she graduates in the Spring of 2019.
“I’d really like to continue playing field hockey”, Cole said speaking of her passion and her future.
Cole has played in every game since she has been on the Buckeyes and has started in a majority of them. Coming into Ohio State out of Crestwood High School in Pennsylvania, there were lofty expectations for her and she has not disappointed. In her four years at Crestwood, she helped lead her team to the PIAA Class AA State Title Game and to a 90-7-2 record. She finished her career there with 41 goals and 41 assists and earned many honors and awards including first team all-state, first team all-region, and second team all American as selected by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.
“It’s very bittersweet,’ Cole said speaking of her Senior season. “The team is looking very strong and I do whatever it takes to help them. It’s really fun, I love my team.”
Cole is the daughter of Christopher and Danielle Cole
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