By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Mia Abello was still in high school when she was called into training camp with the United States’ national field hockey team for the first time, so her skills as a player have long been recognized. Her head coach at the University of Virginia doesn’t take her on-field contributions for granted, but that’s not the only way, Ole Keusgen said, that Abello distinguishes herself.
“When Mia is committed to something,” Keusgen said, “she’s literally in 110 percent, and I feel like you see that every day with the way she approaches being a national-team player, being a captain of our team, and doing whatever is needed in order to develop. She will put in the work, regardless of what that looks like. She’s just super professional, and that combined with her passion for being a team player and a team captain makes her very unique.”
Abello, who was born in London, moved to Houston with her family as a baby and grew up there. As a senior at the Kincaid School, she was called up to the U.S. senior national team, as were two other 12th-graders.
“It’s highly unusual,” Keusgen said, “because the level of high school field hockey, it’s so different. It’s a different sport, if you will.”
Abello had already represented the United States at the U18 and U21 levels, but to be training with so many older women, some of whom were married and expecting children, was a powerful, and occasionally intimidating, experience for her.
“It provided so much perspective,” Abello said, “learning from the best in the country and working with them and having them also be like, ‘Hey, you’re on this team, you deserve to be here.’ It really is a cool way of growing up.
“You don’t really know what to expect. I would say I really learned how determined and disciplined the older girls are, and their words carried a lot of weight. I just had a listening ear and kept my eyes open and tried to take in all the information I could, not only on how they train and perform, but how they treat their teammates and what they’re doing outside of hockey. In reality, all the older girls have the same goals as I do. It’s just they have a little bit more experience.”
Abello, who’s in her third year at UVA, made her international debut for the United States’ senior team against New Zealand early this year. So did former Virginia great Jans Croon, who was a junior who…