Most freshmen find high school to be both exciting and scary. For Zabrina LeVasseur, the first year of high school is especially interesting; she is the only freshman playing for Mercy Varsity Field Hockey.

LeVasseur, who plays forward on the team, has been playing field hockey since she was in sixth grade. She picked up the sport while playing with a local Dexter team in a field hockey league called Rec and Ed. Through both her weekly practices and weekend matches, she learned enough skills to be picked for Varsity in her first year at Mercy.

Although LeVasseur had three years of experience under her belt before high school, her older sister, who she describes as her inspiration to begin field hockey, was new to the sport when she arrived at Mercy in 2007.

“I was like her Mini-Me,” said LeVasseur about her older sibling. While her sister was the reason she tried out field hockey in middle school, she soon adopted it as her own passion. “Once I actually started [field hockey], I really liked it.”

LeVasseur comes from a family that she describes as a “big ice hockey family,” and indeed, plays ice hockey in addition to field hockey. However, for her, field hockey was a chance to do something different.

“I’d been trying to find my sport, one that I really enjoy,” she said. “It was something I was good at.” Now, she is the only one in her family who still plays field hockey.

Along with the league Rec and Ed, LeVasseur has played with the Kensington Valley Ravens and the regional Futures program, as well as in individual tournaments with Pinnacle Sports.

LeVasseur says that although she was uncertain about tryouts this August, they weren’t too intimidating.

“I wasn’t too nervous, but I wasn’t too confident either,” LeVasseur said. She was still slightly surprised when she heard that she had made the varsity team.

The season so far has been beneficial to LeVasseur. In addition to starting during multiple games, she has made friends and learned lots about field hockey. LeVasseur’s goal for the season is to improve her skills, and as a long-term goal, she hopes to get a scholarship to play field hockey in college. She says that during her high school career, she hopes that she’ll “learn to love [field hockey] even more than I already do.”