Media's Moira Putsch and high expectations

When grade-schoolers begin running CYO cross-country, they don't take the regular course into the woods at Belmont Plateau. The younger ones run about a mile, first up an incline, between two rows of trees, then back down the hill toward the city skyline.

For a couple of years there, by the time they started downhill, the race would be over. Moira Putsch would have her insurmountable lead, skimming downhill 20 yards or more ahead of the next runner, way ahead of the jostling pack.

That became a trend across sports.

Putsch got the baton in the Penn Relays final as a sixth grader, her school, St. Mary Magdalen, basically tied for the lead. By the finish line she had about a 10-yard margin, and her team had set a Relays record.

Putsch had this cruising speed that made it all look effortless. Her efforts could go into the technical aspects of whatever sport she was playing.

One year, one of the dads reported that Moira had spent the summer working on dribbling a basketball with her left hand. And she can't recall ever losing a grade-school lacrosse game.

Soccer wasn't her sport - she wasn't the star in that one - but a coach putting together a travel team from the Media area had a spot for Putsch when she had time to play. If she lost the ball, her coach would say, she could just run it down and get it back.

"He just told me to get the ball and run," Putsch remembers.

Almost every year at the CYO archdiocese championships at Franklin Field, Putsch would set an age-group record in one or more events - Girls 11-12-year-old 100-meter dash record, 12.60, Moira Putsch. Girls 11-12 200 meters record, 26.20, Moira Putsch.

In the 400, she has the archdiocese records at every age level: 9-10, 63.51. 11-12, 58.73. 13-15, 56.73. Putsch, Putsch, Putsch.

That last one, the 400-meter record in the oldest age category, she still remembers vividly. To this day, Putsch said, that's one of her proudest moments.

She said she really enjoyed track, but there was one aspect that made it hard to fully embrace: Everyone always expected her to win every race.

As burdens go, there are tougher ones, but it was still something.

"So many people would say, 'You're going to win' - they would say that right before the race," Putsch said.

"It got to the point [where] I was so nervous and so anxious - if I didn't win it, it kind of took away the more enjoyable parts of the sports," she said.

Team sports didn't have quite that same drawback, one reason Putsch is now a freshman field hockey player at the University of Maryland. That eventually became her sole sport in high school and on the club circuit.

"You were able to feel this team bond. You wanted everyone to do well," Putsch said. "You could enjoy the moment a little more."

She wasn't running away from pressure. She still dominated this sport at the Academy of Notre Dame. The Inquirer named her Southeastern Pennsylvania player of the year as a junior and senior. A year ago, she was on the under-19 USA team that toured Holland.

She's had setbacks. She had to sit out six months after a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus suffered as a high school sophomore. And, she said, there's still pressure she puts on herself to succeed.

"Sometimes I get a little nauseous," Putsch said. "I think that's a part of me. I'm learning as a freshman how to be calm. It's all kind of a learning experience. I do get very nervous, but it's a good and a bad thing."

One thing she really likes about field hockey, she said, there's always more to learn. It's a very technical sport. And the speed of the college game is such, she said, that there can't be a moment when you're not totally focused. In some ways, every player has to have a point guard mentality because the setup is as important as the shot.

Putsch's own speed is still there. This season, she's twice been named Big Ten freshman of the week playing for the Terps, ranked second in the country.

"Bottom line is Moira Putsch can run by anybody," Maryland coach Missy Meharg told the school paper after one of Putsch's early games, when a Putsch assist sparked a victory.

She probably picked the sport in which her speed can take her the furthest. Her goal, Putsch said, is the Olympics.

If she gets there, a lot of folks around her hometown will simply nod and say, "Of course she did."