“What It Means To Be Great, Not Just A Great Field Hockey Player”: UNC’s Ryleigh Heck

It’s a brisk, partly cloudy autumn Sunday afternoon at Karen Shelton Stadium on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. After 2 hours and 19 minutes of field hockey, North Carolina and Northwestern are tied 2-2 in a penalty shootout for the 2023 NCAA Field Hockey Championship. The teams are tied through the first round of five shots, which means the shootout will go to sudden death.

Northwestern’s Peyton Halsey steps up to the 23-meter line to shoot first for the Wildcats. After dribbling up and spinning in front of the cage, Halsey rips a shot on the ground that’s deflected away by UNC goalkeeper Maddie Kahn. The Tar Heels will now have a chance to win the championship with a goal.

UNC head coach Erin Matson walks up to her top scorer Ryleigh Heck, who will be given an opportunity to shoot again after converting her initial penalty during the first round of shots.

“Erin looks at me and says, ‘Go win a national championship,’” said Heck. “My entire head just shut off and I literally blacked out. At the same time, I was thinking I’m not missing this. I had no thought that I was going to miss.”

Heck and Matson are utilizing the short time they had in between shooters to deliberate on how Heck should attack the biggest penalty shot of her life. 

“She was toying between, ‘Do I do something different because she knows I’m going to spin, the goalkeeper knows I’m going to spin,’” said Matson. “I was like, ‘Just stick true to what works for you. If you commit to it, you go with it. If it fails, it fails. But at least you committed to it.’”

Heck nods in acknowledgement, and makes her way to the 23-meter line with the Tar Heel faithful cheering her on from the sold-out stadium seats and the grass hills surrounding the field. When the umpire blows her whistle for Heck to begin her approach, you could hear a pin drop from the spectating spaces. 

Heck, as cool and confident as she could be, orchestrates the same penalty shot routine she has practiced her whole life. She turns her back on Northwestern goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz, spins to her left, and blasts the ball into the bottom right corner of the cage. 

Pandemonium ensues. 

Heck began playing field hockey when she was three years old. With her mom, Kerry, being a former field hockey and lacrosse player at James Madison, and her dad, Roy, being a former basketball player at Stockton University, Heck’s athletic abilities were in her genes. Being the youngest of four siblings, Heck had to hold her own in a family of soon-to-be college athletes.

Because she was the youngest, she’d have to prove to her siblings she belonged.

“When I was little, I wanted to play football,” said Heck. “I was like, ‘Put me in the pads!’ So, when I was seven or eight, I would go in pads with my brothers and play tackle football in my yard… I’d go out there, pads on and everything, and get knocked down and get right back up.” 

Heck has her mom to thank for her eagerness to want to regularly play with the big kids. Having been her field hockey coach since she began playing, Kerry has always looked to get the most out of her youngest daughter by consistently challenging her. 

“She taught me all of the fundamentals,” Heck said. “She always put me up in the older groups.”

Heck, who didn’t welcome the idea of playing on older field hockey teams at first, eventually adapted to the quicker and more intense playing environment.

“At first I was scared. I was really tiny when I was little, so you could tell that I did not belong,” said Heck. “But, over time I learned how to play with older girls and I got better.”

Outside of her mom, Heck’s biggest supporter in improving her field hockey skills was her older sister Kara. Heck and her sister had a tough love relationship.

“There was a lot of yelling at each other, but in a good way to support each other,” said Heck. “In the end, it obviously helped me in the long run.” 

Since she always played in older divisions while growing up, Heck was able to play with Kara on the same teams as well. As a result, her sister’s constructive criticism on the field would be met with her mom’s two cents on the sideline. 

“So if I made one mistake, I was getting something from here in this ear and then my mom in the other ear,” said Heck.

When Heck transitioned to playing field hockey at Eastern High School in Ocean City, N.J, the accolades began to come pouring in. All-America honors, all-state selections, New Jersey Player of the Year, you name it. Heck would be sought after by all of the top college field hockey teams, and for good reason. 

So, when legendary field hockey coach Karen Shelton reached out to Heck about coming to play at North Carolina, Heck made the tough decision of deciding to go play for arguably the nation’s best field hockey program instead of following in her mom’s footsteps and playing at JMU.

The UNC coaching staff had become cognizant of Heck’s incredible abilities even before she stepped foot on campus.

“I was very impressed with her skill, her vision, just her field hockey IQ in general,” said UNC assistant coach Caitlin Van Sickle about watching Heck play in high school.

Nevertheless, joining a championship caliber college team as a freshman is never easy, no matter the sport. On top of that, Heck would be navigating this next stage of her life without her mom constantly by her side for the first time. 

Heck’s first season at North Carolina was a success to say the least. Voted ACC Freshman of the Year, Heck produced 38 points on 18 goals and two assists, second only to her then-teammate, now-head coach Erin Matson. Heck capped off her brilliant season with the opening goal in the 2022 NCAA Field Hockey Championship against Northwestern. Her first half goal put the Tar Heels up 1-0, and UNC went on to win the championship 2-1. 

Heck’s stellar first season set an immensely high bar going into her sophomore year. The truth of the matter was opposing defenses would now be focusing a majority of their attention on Heck with Matson moving to the sideline after Shelton’s retirement. Her coaches were nonetheless not worried about how she’d handle the transition to the focal point of the offense.

“She’s someone who’s so naturally gifted with the sport,” said Matson.

Matson isn’t the only coach who has thrown the term “gifted’ around when describing Heck.

“That’s why I think she is so dynamic,” said Van Sickle. “And she is so hard to defend, because she can not only beat you with her hands, but also with her vision, and that’s a gift.” 

The freshman to sophomore jump is a common used phrase when describing athletes who vastly improve after their first season. 

But how could someone who was already so accomplished at her sport become a greater player?

“Doing the little things has really helped me,” said Heck. “I am a person who gets up at 8am and gets on the field for an hour before class everyday.”

Heck credits her mom for developing the mentality of doing even the small things.

“She’s more into doing the work when no one’s looking,” said Heck. “So when I have a couple days off and I’m just sitting in bed, she’ll be like, ‘What are you doing?’”

Part of becoming great for Heck has also entailed taking more of a leadership role on the team. This has included taking a few of the younger players under her wing, like UNC freshman Charly Bruder. 

Bruder was first on the team with 15 goals this past year, and was only one point shy of Heck’s team-leading 34 points. Bruder would even accompany Heck to her early morning workouts so that the two could practice together.  

“She took me out to the field almost every morning,” said Bruder. “She would just hit around with me, and she’d say, ‘I think you need to work on this, so let’s work on this.’ And she was just a major mentor for me.”

Heck’s development as a leader during her sophomore season has become widely recognized by the coaching staff.

“It was phenomenal to see her step into that role of, ‘I’m going to put the team on my back now,’” said Matson. “Not as in eliminations and goalscoring, but as motivating and as giving feedback in the moment to problem solve.”

Van Sickle backed Matson’s high praise.

“Now, seeing her day-to-day, she is using her voice more, and she’s demanding more of her teammates,” Van Sickle said. “So, this was really nice to see because her freshman year she was this shy individual.”

As the Tar Heels carry on with their spring practices and games, Heck will look to continue her strides as a player and leader for a team chasing its sixth championship in seven years. And along the way, Heck hopes to keep falling in love with a sport that has given her everything back and more. 

“I was always into field hockey,” said Heck. “But, when I experienced what it’s like to be on a team like this, and it’s literally like your family… it really made me love the sport so much that I just don’t ever want to stop.”