Caylie McMahon thought she had her next four years perfectly planned out, until Stanford University made the decision to end their field hockey program.
“A five-minute zoom call basically ended everything I had been signed up for since I was 15 years old, wanting to go to this school since I was 14,” she said.
She said her love for field hockey began in the seventh grade, two years after quitting because she hated the sport.
“I did it and actually ended up hating it, so I quit after one year and thought I’m never doing this again. I couldn’t stand it we, we lost every game, it was not fun for me,” she said.
McMahon, 18, of Stow Massachusetts, attended Nashoba Regional High School and played on the field hockey and basketball teams for all four years.
After years of playing basketball, McMahon said she became burnt out from the amount of time she spent playing on club teams, as well as the high school teams.
“I loved basketball, and always wanted to play, but then got burnt out, and played it way too much,” she said.
McMahon said her old coach reached out and asked if she wanted to play goalie at a tournament in Disney World. She said she agreed because she thought it would be a fun vacation for her family.
Her family consists of her parents, Charlene and Liam, as well as her younger sister, Larissa.
At the time of the tournament, McMahon said she didn’t think much of the sport but gave it another chance.
“I ended up going and loving it, and then just stuck with it ever since. I love the competitiveness, and being a goalie is tough mentally, but I just loved playing. It’s a mix of reactions and quick movements, and just a lot of fun,” she said.
She recalled how she started playing on junior varsity her freshman year and was the backup goalie which motivated her more to become better and earn the starting spot.
McMahon said it was always difficult to balance her schoolwork, social life, and her commitments to multiple field hockey teams.
Although it was difficult at times, she said it was worth it because of everything she was able to accomplish.
McMahon said she was first selected to the U16 futures teams, which made her realize she could go far in her field hockey career.
She said that following that, she moved up the ranks as a goalie, and eventually made the national team, where she was selected to the tour which travelled to Uruguay. This meant that she was one of the top two goalies in the country for her age group.
McMahon said that up until July 8, her field hockey career was going perfectly.
McMahon remembered the day Stanford announced that they were ending the field hockey program as being one of the worst days of her life.
“I still think that it actually broke me, it was awful,” she said.
On July 8, she said the head of athletics at Stanford held a five-minute zoom call and said that the 11 sports who were on the call were going to be cut after the 2021 academic year.
“I call my dad and I’m just screaming. I’m like, ‘what do I do?’. Then I called my club coach and asked her the same thing. I was just devastated,” she said.
“I am so grateful for this but I received more texts and calls that day than I ever have, I genuinely received over 80 phone calls and over 300 texts from random people, girls that I played with years ago because everyone knows the field hockey world is so small,” she said.
She said that she decided to take a year off from school and commit to a different college for the 2021-2022 school year instead of going to Stanford.
McMahon said that she strongly considered going to Stanford for the education, but she has a dream of going to the Olympics in 2028, and she would have to continue to play field hockey to achieve this dream.
“I am going to go to a different school next year and continue to play field hockey because my main goal is to make the Olympics someday. Being on the national team for three years, and being in the pipeline, is obviously a big help. This whole thing has made me want it even more to make the Olympic team in 2028,” she said.
In what she described as a last-minute decision, she decided to spend the semester in London to stay with one of her Stanford teammates, and play on the best club team in all of Europe.
“I am on the field in London with three girls who won the gold medal in the last Olympics for London. These girls are amazing, which is inspiring me to reach my dream of playing for Team USA,” she said.
Despite the heartbreak she said she went through, McMahon said she feels like it was a blessing in disguise that she ended up going to London.
“The best decision I’ve ever made has been coming here [London]. Stanford really broke me and people who knew me before compared to how I am after, can really honestly tell how bad it impacted me, but also in a great way at the same time,” she said.
She said taking a gap year has allowed her to change her mindset.
“I’ve gone through so much emotion and mental growth, and although I am living with a family, I’m so independent,” she said.
McMahon described how she was always a very stressed out person, and had to have everything planned, but that has changed since moving to London.
“I was so worried about the next thing because my life was planned since I was 15. I was going to Stanford, relying I was going to get in, then start pre-season and have this great career,” she said.
“Coming here, I have no plans. I’m so day by day and I actually live in the moment which is amazing,” she said.
Recently, McMahon said she had another obstacle to overcome with her college field hockey career.
She said that she was ready to commit to play field hockey at the University of Virginia, pending scholarship money. However, she said she received a call saying that with new NCAA rules being implemented, there was not enough scholarship money for her to be a part of the team.
“So now this happened again to me, where the school I wanted to go to just isn’t working out and now I have to settle for two schools I don’t really want to go to,” she said
However, she said that she has learned to be more go with the flow, and not dwell on things for too long, or it will just become worse.
“I could have chosen to have the worst day and dwell on it, but instead I had a day that I will actually never forget. I just learned that things are going to happen, but you just have to keep enjoying every little thing that comes your way,” she said.
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