The Broadneck field hockey team dominated throughout the 2022 season, going undefeated, winning the Anne Arundel County and Class 4A state championships and finishing No. 1 in the final Baltimore Banner/VSN Field Hockey Top 20. The Bruins were also ranked 19th in the nation by MAX Field Hockey.

With such great team success comes individual honors as well and they are well deserved for Broadneck’s Maya Everett, the 2022 Baltimore Banner/VSN Field Hockey Player of the Year, and Shannon Hanratty, the 2022 Baltimore Banner/VSN Field Hockey Coach of the Year.

Joining this duo as field hockey elite for this fall is Garrison Forest’s Alyssa Klebasko, the 2022 Baltimore Banner/VSN Field Hockey Defensive Player of the Year.

Here are their stories:

Player of the Year

Maya Everett, Broadneck High School

Maya Everett didn’t set out to score most of the goals or force most of the turnovers for No. 1 Broadneck’s undefeated Class 4A state champion field hockey team. She focused on a more low key leadership role.

“I think my role especially as a senior was bringing the team together and it sounds cheesy, but I think the environment you build people up with is most important especially when you have big goals,” the senior midfielder said. “Being able to work with a team really well and having a nice flow with each other, it made our team that much better, and having all the seniors take part in that was really special.”

On a team that valued teamwork above all, Everett still stood out as the heart of the Bruins, who played a college-level game and achieved every goal they set. They finished 20-0 with their first state title in 20 years and also won the Anne Arundel County championship.

Everett, who has signed with Maryland, had the speed and skills conducive to maneuvering in tight spaces or playing a more wide open game. Although a strong finisher, she often used her smart decisions and excellent field vision to set a play in motion that resulted in a goal two or three passes down the line.

“Broadneck, as a whole, had a very strong team, very athletic and you could tell, she was the quarterback of that team,” Crofton coach Amy Skrickus said. “A lot of the passing went through her. She scored a lot of goals for them. She just kind of did it all in the midfield.”

A two-time All-State first-team selection and a two-time MAX Field Hockey All Mid-Atlantic Region selection, Everett could have taken over games, but her ability to orchestrate in so many ways helped elevate the Bruins to No. 19 in MAX Field Hockey’s National Top 25.

“Sometimes people have this idea that the Player of the Year has to be somebody who racks up the most stats,” Broadneck coach Shannon Hanratty said, “but if you really do watch Maya, she does so much and she does it well.

“She tackles back and creates turnovers for herself in that defensive end and then she sparks the offensive end… When the ball is on her stick, the number of options that we have multiplies. A lot of players might have one or two options. When we get that ball to her in the midfield, it opens up to three and four and she can hit all of those.”

Everett finished third on the team in scoring with 19 goals and nine assists. She scored the insurance goal in the 2-0 victory over Winston Churchill that polished off the perfect season with the third state field hockey title in Broadeck history.

She scored two goals in an early season, 4-1, win over 2021 IAAM A Conference champion Archbishop Spalding, which gave the Bruins the Baltimore Banner/VSN No. 1 ranking they never surrendered.

“There are a lot of girls out here especially where we play, Anne Arundel County or the IAAM, with really good skill, but she never seems to get rattled. She’s just so calm,” Spalding coach Leslee Brady said. “Her poise and her ability to quickly and deftly move through a whole other team is really exceptional. And the other thing is her vision. I think she’s the key to distribution and the connections with her teammates. She has great vision and makes those great connections from defense to offense and vice versa.”

Field hockey was always the sport for Everett.

She has a picture of herself as a little girl holding a small stick on the field at the University of New Hampshire where her mother Caroline (Coyne) Everett played. Maya couldn’t wait to play and started at 4 or 5. Her younger sister Faith, a Broadneck sophomore, soon followed.

Maya immediately loved the competition and “fell in love with almost every aspect of it.”

As a youngster, she played mostly forward, but when she started playing for the Freedom HKY club, she moved to center midfield and thrived at the position.

“I loved how you can see the whole field,” she said. “I loved how you can communicate to everybody and see everything and see how the game moves from one position to another. I feel like I’m involved in offense and defense and everything in between. It makes the game so much faster and so much more fun.”

Everett said she never really thought about playing college hockey anywhere except Maryland, an eight-time NCAA champion which reached the final four this fall. That was the only college she ever went to for clinics and, she said, she’s excited for the great coaching she’ll get from the Terps’ staff.

Although she’s not looking beyond college, Everett, a two-time Junior Olympian, said she would love to keep playing perhaps for the USA national team.

“If I had the opportunity, I would absolutely take it in a heartbeat,” she said. “I think this game has been such a big part of my life I couldn’t give it up that easily.”

Defensive Player of the Year

Alyssa Klebasko, Garrison Forest School

When Alyssa Kelbasko dons her field hockey goalie pads, she seems to grow exponentially. She’s just 5-feet-4, but she appears to fill the entire cage.

“I like to call her Spiderman, because she’s all over the place all the time. Just so quick and fast,” Garrison Forest coach Mimi Smith said.

“I would warm her up before the games and I could always tell how ready she was in the moment by the warmup, not just the skill of the warmup, but she would have these amazing out-of-nowhere grabs and reaches for the ball… She can just react in a second to whatever is happening in addition to the fact that she’s aggressive and she’s competitive.”

A National Field Hockey Coaches Association third-team All-American as a junior, Klebasko saved 85.4 percent of the shots she faced this fall. The senior had nine shutouts and allowed just 14 goals in 18 games for the No. 2 Grizzlies, the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference champions.

The Grizzlies (16-1-1) did not lose to an A Conference opponent, allowing just three goals during the regular season and two during the playoffs. No IAAM team scored more than one goal on Klebasko, who has signed to play for the field hockey program she’s loved since she was 6 -- Maryland.

With her in goal, the Grizzlies reached the IAAM A Conference title game three times with two championships (COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season). She started every game since her freshman year and allowed 48 goals in 58 games. She posted 29 career shutouts.

“Alyssa is one of the most dynamic and agile goalkeepers in the country,” Notre Dame Prep coach Katrina Ross said. “Among the class of 2023, I believe she has proven that time and time again she is one of the top in her class. Over the past year I have seen a tremendous amount of growth in her maturity and her leadership…”

A two-time first-team All-State selection, Klebasko is also a two-time MAX Field Hockey All Mid-Atlantic Region selection. One of only 33 players nationwide to make the USA Field Hockey Rise National Team in 2022, she played for the U16 Outdoor National Team in 2020.

Klebasko started playing at 4 and her move to the goal came two years later after she was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. She had to sit for one season, but she loved field hockey too much to quit. When doctors allowed her to play again, her coach put her in the goal so she could hold onto the sides of the cage to reserve her strength when she wasn’t in the action.

Even after she made a full recovery, she never wanted to leave the cage. Now, she coaches goalies at the U12 and U14 level at her club, Freedom HKY.

“The main thing is the thrill of a save,” she said. “I love helping my team because if the other team doesn’t score, we can’t lose. I like being able to make sure we don’t lose and I love how vocal you have to be as goalie and step up and be a leader because you see the whole field and you can help your teammates to be successful.”

In addition to all of the physical assets, Klebasko also has the mental acuity to bounce back quickly. One of her favorite moments of the season, in addition to winning the championship, came at the MAX Field Hockey National Invitational in September, when the Grizzlies defeated Staples, Conn., 2-0, shortly after falling, 5-2 to the Academy of Notre Dame du Namur from Villanova, Pa.

“We, as a team, were really down and I took that game especially hard,” Klebasko said of the loss, “because I didn’t feel like I played my best. The next game we played — we had an hour break and I came back and I think I played the best game all year. A highlight was how I was able to change my mentality and just show up for my team and how the team, as a whole, was able to change our attitude and get a win which we hadn’t been able to get in three years at that tournament.”

For Klebasko, who faced fewer shots on goal (96) than many of her high school peers, staying focused is especially important. She said she stays involved even when the play is at the far end of the field, communicating with her teammates and helping them as much as she can.

She averaged 4.5 saves per game this fall, but with one tie and six games won by one or two goals, each save was critical.

“Alyssa was able to make some high-value saves in moments that we needed it,” Smith said, “and she was going to be ready to make that save. When you don’t see much action in the backfield, sometimes a defense can be caught off guard. Not Alyssa. Alyssa is ready all the time to make the save, to make the difficult save.”

Coach of the Year

Shannon Hanratty, Broadneck High School

When Shannon Hanratty played field hockey at Broadneck, she joked about coming back to coach her alma mater.

Three years ago, she got her wish, taking over a Broadneck program with a few stellar freshmen whom she believed could help her build a state championship team.

This fall, not only did the No. 1 Bruins win their first state championship in 20 years, but they finished 20-0, won the Anne Arundel County championship and earned the No. 19 ranking in MAX Field Hockey’s National Top 25.

“I feel like every coach’s joy is actually seeing your kids reach their goals,” Hanratty said. “Every coach watches their team work hard towards the goals, but you still can’t do it for them. It’s really hard work to keep their spirits up, to keep their motivation up, keep them trudging forward and when I look back and think about the past four years with this group building toward this moment, it just sort of feels right and it just feels so well deserved for the work on their part.”

Four-year veterans Maya Everett, Arden Hunteman and Lexie Dupcak led the way, but the Bruins had no weak links and Hanratty helped all of her players understand that blending their considerable individual talents into one smooth operation was the best way to win. Their motto, “All gas, no brakes,” applied perfectly to the way they moved as a unit. They played with all-around skill, speed, synergy and selflessness that elevated them to a level more akin to a college program.

“That team clicks and that’s coaching to me,” Archbishop Spalding coach Leslee Brady said. “When you can get good players to release the ball to another good player and another good player and they all to go down the field and make it happen — to me, a lot of that has to do with coaching and making sure everyone’s touching the ball and no one person is trying to do everything— and they have a lot of one persons who could do that.”

In their fourth game, the Bruins defeated Spalding, the No. 1 team in 2021 and the defending Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference champion, 4-1, to take the Baltimore Banner/VSN No. 1 ranking. They would never give it up.

They outscored the opposition, 110-11, and won every game by at least two goals. Eleven of their wins came over Baltimore Banner/VSN Top 15 teams, including two other state champions, Crofton and Glenelg, and they beat six Top 10 teams.

For the Bruins, the biggest roadblock to the state championship has been the teams in their own region. Severna Park, with a state-record 25 state titles, and South River had combined to win the previous 10 Class 4A crowns.

Last year, the Bruins fell to eventual champ Severna Park, 1-0, in the state quarterfinals. This year, Broadneck won, 3-1, in the quarterfinals. They went on to beat Churchill, 2-0, in the final.

“In the beginning of the season when we saw how talented the team could be, how well they were working together to beat top teams, it made us start the whispers of, ‘Oh, we could really do something special with this group.’ Then to finally reach that final buzzer, all I could think was we dealt with so many years of heartbreak that to finally to be the team that ends happy was just sort of like surreal,” said Hanratty, who also credited her assistant coaches Melissa Quigley, Joe Borneman and Stephanie Thomson.

Quigley led the Bruins to the 2002 championship and coached Hanratty, an All-State defender at Broadneck before she went on to help Salisbury win the 2009 Division III national championship. She recommended Hanratty for the top Bruisn job for her knowledge of the game, but also because of the way she relates to the girls.

“She really cares for each of these players individually,” said Quigley, whose daughter Madi is a Bruins junior, “and it doesn’t matter what their role is on the field… I think that team aspect really made these girls come together. They are talented, but the things that they were accomplishing were because they were so kind to each other. They had this team atmosphere and Shannon’s the one who orchestrates all that with them.”

Everett, the 2022 Baltimore Banner/VSN Field Hockey Player of the Year, said, “She knows the players on a personal level, so it’s not just a game, it’s you as a person. She’s done so much for us. She pushes us to be better players and better people.”

Hanratty, a math teacher at Broadneck, always knew she wanted to coach but can’t pinpoint the moment that sparked fired in her mind.

She’s always coached with the same philosophy: “Being able to have fun but also being able to challenge kids to grow together.

“Any team that I’ve coached — in rec, high school, college, club — I draw from what my own personal experiences were on the best teams that I was on and that was that nice mixture of having fun and working hard. It sounds super cliche, but it takes work to achieve that balance and it’s not as easy as it sounds, but I think it’s so important.”