Each step of the way toward making the Junior National field hockey team Alyssa Parker had her doubts. The players she was trying out against were incredibly skilled, she said. She expressed this sentiment after weekends at regional camps that eventually led to the Junior National camp last July.
Each time, though, Parker made the cut and advanced to the next level of the United States Field Hockey Association's process to pick the best junior players in the county.
After the Junior National camp, the Glenelg senior, was named as one of 35 on the Under-19 national squad. That selection brought the opportunity to attend four-day training camp over two weekends in January at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
At Chula Vista, the best of the best junior field hockey players in the country were vying for positions on the U-17, U-19 and U-21 touring teams.
Parker didn't favorably assess her performance in California. The high-scoring midfielder said the best she did was on a defensive drill, and defense isn't her forté.
Perhaps, she was too self critical.
Feb. 1, Parker learned that she is one of 16 field players and two goalkeepers chosen for the U-19 touring team, which will play a four-game test series in Canada this April.
"I am so happy to get this opportunity," said the three-time Howard County Player of the year.
"No one in Howard County has ever reached the level that Alyssa has," said Ginger Kincaid, her high school coach.
Kincaid said that at the upper level of play, all the players are fast, athletic and skilled. Intangibles like field sense and the ability to see the open player then come into play during selections. Parker's got that in her favor.
"Alyssa transitions and makes things happen. She sees the openings," Kincaid said.
Parker, who has signed her National Letter of Intent to play for the University of Maryland, is one of two players known to have scored 100 goals and made 100 assists in her high school career.
She said she is looking forward to wearing the United States uniform.