Fairhurst sticks to field hockey, has major goals for Pace
The first time Grafton High School senior Katelyn Fairhurst held a field hockey stick, it cast a spell over her.
“I quit dance,” Fairhurst said. “I quit softball. I just thought field hockey was the way to go. When you’re out there, you’re only thinking of field hockey, you’re surrounded by teammates that are thinking of field hockey, you’re working together… it’s just magical.”
That was the winter of her sixth grade year, at a clinic in Uxbridge. Her new passion was offset by a growing problem — the year before, she started to lose her hearing due to a condition called cholesteatoma, an abnormal growth of skin in the middle ear behind the eardrum.
Her eardrum was retracting.
“I didn’t notice. I was just doing my own thing,” she recalled. I wasn’t able to hear my parents and they were yelling on the couch next to me.”
By the time Fairhurst was firmly ensconced in field hockey, she acquired a set of hearing aids. The first time she tried them on, she heard a strange buzzing sound.
“it was the AC unit,” she said. “And I was like, wait, that makes noise?”
While she was adapting to the new sounds, her coach and teammates were adapting to her hearing impairment.
“It’s always been a struggle,” she said. “I’ll have teammates trying to sub me off the field and I couldn’t hear them. And my coaches have done very unique things just so I know what they need from me.”
Fairhurst joined the Grafton High field hockey team after her family moved to town during her sophomore year. The team made it to districts but lost to Doherty High School, something she admits she remembers “very very well.”
The COVID-19 pandemic hit in earnest her junior year but there was a bright spot in April: she underwent cochlear implant surgery at Mass Eye & Ear, and her hearing immediately improved.
This year, with a high school once again filled with students and a renewal of school spirit, the Gators’ sports teams went on a tear. The field hockey team went into overtime for a 2-1 win over Nauset in the first round of the MIAA Division II Field Hockey Tournament, only to fall to Holliston in the second round.
Last week, Fairhurst signed her letter of intent with Pace University where, yes, she will be found on the playing fields of the Division 2 field hockey team.
“I love the coach,” she said. “I also got to go tour there, the campus is so nicely spread out — you have a walk, but you’re not hiking miles. There’s a lake in the middle of the campus. It feels like a community.”
What else is in the plans? A degree in biology, followed by medical school, with the goal of becoming a surgeon.
“I like to set pretty good goals,” she said.
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