Maddie Miller ‘24’s love for field hockey began with hating Rec-n-ed soccer. Miller began playing at the age of seven and worked her way up though various levels of club playing with the Pinnacle field hockey team. The latest tournament Miller played in was for the Maccabi USA program, where she and her sister Kate Miller ‘26 took home bronze after five days of games. 

Maddie Miller has been playing field hockey for ten years, she has played for the schools’ team every year through middle and high school. This past year Maddie Miller was co varsity captain. She began playing in middle school due to encouragement from her parents and from the lack of interest and knowledge in the other sports offered at the time. 

“Maddie is someone that the team can rely on and off the field,” said head field hockey coach Jill Dixon. “From my perspective she is a calm and collected player, a leader by example. She is extremely reliable when it comes to performing on the field, which was a huge piece of our success this past fall.” 

Maddie Miller began playing for Pinnacle in seventh grade as a goalie and has continued to play for the club since then. She has attended various competitions and tournaments with this team. 

“One of my favorite memories while playing with my club team was when we went to nationals my freshman year and did better than we expected by placing eighth out of 15 teams,” said Maddie Miller. “Then during the beginning of my sophomore year we were ranked number one in the country.” 

Towards the beginning of sophomore year Maddie Miller realized she would be interested in continuing her field hockey career into college. 

“I attended a tournament in Florida over Thanksgiving, during it I had some great games and this motivated me to consider the recruitment process,” said Maddie Miller. “At the time several of my club friends were getting recruited to play field hockey in college and while I knew that I couldn’t play at the division one level, I was pushed by friends and coaches to want to play in college. I went into the whole process very open minded.” 

After touring various schools that offered the sport at the D3 level and performing in front of recruiters, Maddie Miller was offered a spot to play at Wellesley college. She accepted and will be attending and playing with the team this upcoming fall.

“Wellesley is the perfect school  for me,” said Maddie Miller. “It met all my requirements: on the east coast, good academics, and being D3 for field hockey.”

Since getting into college Maddie Miller has continued to play with her club and participate in tournaments. Her most recent tournament was through the Maccabi USA program. Maccabi was created to connect Jewish student athletes over their shared community and love for their sport. The specific game Maddie Miller and her sister played in was the 15th Pan American Maccabi Games held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They are held every four years in one Latin America country and are sponsored by the Latin American Maccabi Confederation.

“My dad was really involved in Maccabi growing up, he played rugby,” said Maddie Miller. “He tried to get my older brother involved with their ice hockey team but he didn’t make it. Then he got a notification about the games in Argentina. He was very excited and encouraged my sister and I to try out.” 

The application process consisted of interviewing with the team’s head coaches and then sending in a handful of highlights from previous games. Both Miller sisters  played for the U-16 team, the entire trip was ten days but there was one practice and five game days, the extra days were used to tour Buenos Aires. There were four teams competing in total, three were Argentinian and one was American, the Miller’s team placed bronze. 

“There were two goalies, me and another girl, we split the first three games 50/50,” said Maddie Miller. “The last two games I played three quarters and she played one. A really nerve wracking but fun moment for me was during the last game, I was in for goalie and we were tied two to two. Then our team scored and there was only ten minutes left in the game which was extremely intense.

Post competition athletes were allowed to travel around the city and visit different restaurants, shops, and other tourist attractions. 

“I felt so fortunate to have my sister there with me,” said Maddie Miller. “ We got to see some really cool places, like the pink house, and after we walked around we would return to the convention center and hangout with all these other athletes who came from different countries and played different sports than us.” 

While Maddie Miller was looking forward to the out of the country trip Kate Miller was slightly hesitant at first. This was mainly due to applying and getting into the program later than Maddie. 

“It was just so last minute, it made me unsure I wanted to go,” said Kate Miller. “But I’m glad I ended up going. It was a lot of fun to explore Argentina with Maddie and I felt connected to my Jewish roots competing with these other girls who are also Jewish.”