Wake Forest Athletics News - Wake Forest University Athletics

Gold Rush: Player Spotlight: Kelly Doton

Nov. 12, 2002

By Sam Walker

The first time Kelly Doton held a field hockey stick in her hand, it felt like a foreign object. She was used to holding a golf club or a hockey stick, and being a lefty during her hockey playing days, the shape of the field hockey stick alone forced her to be an unnatural right-handed hitter. Today, the stick is nothing more than a natural extension of one of the ACC's best players. Her stick has helped carry the Deacons to a national rank of No. 4, and Wake Forest is now focusing in on an ACC title that has so far eluded what is and has been one of the best teams in the nation for the last four years.

Doton is a legitimate conference player of the year candidate from her defensive midfield spot. She leads the team with 11 assists and has scored five goals from a position not normally considered a scoring one. Wake enters the ACC Tournament on a 13-game win streak and as the conference's No. 1 seed. Doton is one major reason why.

"What is she worth to this team?" Coach Jennifer Averill of Wake Forest asked and answered. "I think she's, if not the best player in the ACC, one of the best players in the ACC. I'll nominate her for player of the year, no doubt in my mind. She's really grown. There's a lot of maturity in her play. She's not that patient with herself and is extremely stubborn, and when that's used in the correct way, it is unbelievable how productive that can be. When she's hard on herself, that's when you've got to calm her down. But when she's up and controlling the squad, I don't think there's a better team in the country."

Ironically, Doton never played defensive midfield until Averill moved her from the front line last year. It was a move Doton didn't particularly like at the time. Now it's one she's glad was made.

"My coaches had just always put me on the center forward line, and when I got here she moved me back to midfield because we had a vacancy..." Doton said. "I didn't like it too much because I thought it was too much running. I have to play offense and defense, but I got used to it. Now I love having the ball in my hands to distribute. I don't miss goal scoring. I'd rather be the passer."

Doton gives much credit for her success in the midfield to former Deacon All-American Jemima Cameron, with whom she teamed a season ago. But with Cameron gone, it's Doton who has taken over the lead in directing the team. "After last season I was thinking what am I going to do without her (Cameron) now. I felt like it was just me in the midfield. But Kelly Dostal has stepped in, and we have other midfielders who have stepped in, and it's been an easy transition. It's like a whole new team this year. We had a big vacancy with Jemima leaving and Jennie Shelton leaving, but our offense hasn't missed a beat at all."

"I think it's a product of how she's evolved on this team," Averill said. "I'd love to play her up on the forward line. She would probably be one of the most dynamic players up there. However, if we don't get her the ball, we're wasting her, so I really felt she had to have as many touches on the ball as possible and midfield the place for that. She's always in thick of it."

Doton came to Wake Forest from Greenfield, Mass., a town in the western part of the state. When Doton was ready to enter the college, ranks she had broken Greenfield High School's scoring record, had been named to the All-League team in 1997 and 1998, named a Northeastern All-American as a sophomore and was named her team's MVP as a senior.

"Field hockey is bigger that soccer where I come from," Doton said. "I started out playing ice hockey and started skating when I was four or five because my brothers did. Then in seventh grade, our middle school was saying there was going to be field hockey tryouts, and some of my ice hockey teammates said they were going to do it and I tried out."

Doton reached the southern hospitality of Wake Forest because Amy Robertson, a former assistant coach under Averill, had coached in the futures program in western Massachusetts and knew Doton and her reputation as a talent. Robertson is now the head coach at the University of Indiana. Averill was also a key factor in bringing Doton to Wake Forest.

"This was the most southern school I looked at," Doton said. "She (Robertson) has known me since I started field hockey in seventh grade, and I always kept in contact with her. She knew how I was doing, how my high school was doing, and she knew my high school coach. At that time I was getting floods of mail from colleges. She sent me a package from Wake Forest. I thought, where the heck is Wake Forest? Then I looked at the stamp and it said Winston-Salem, North Carolina. North Carolina? So my dad did some research on them, and they were doing pretty good so I trusted what Amy said and contacted the school. I took an official visit and fell in love with the campus. I liked the team, too, and I made my decision to come to Wake.

"When I met Jen first, I thought she was pretty young. But Jen is very energetic, has a passion for the game, and you could see it in her eyes that she really wanted to win. Not to discredit any of the other coaches, but when I met her, I was like 'wow, I want to play for her.' I think she knew where this program was going, and I wanted to be a part if it."

Last season Doton was named the NCAA All-Tournament team, marking her as one of the nation's top players for 2002. This season she is a part of a balanced team that forces opponents to play them pretty much straight up. Wake Forest opponents have given Doton the respect she has earned sometimes, specifically marking and at times doubling her. Still she has proven to be an effective and a prominent player on the field. Doton is just a junior and has high aspirations for herself and the Wake Forest field hockey team. Still more awaits her, according to Averill.

"Several of my colleague view her as the next key defender on our national team," Averill said. "She would probably love to play center forward, but she has great hits, and her distribution out of the backfield is huge. So after the World Cup and after people leave and positions are vacant, I think she is skilled enough to make that transition. That's out there for her, but she keeps it at bay because everything is all about Wake. She wants to be sure that she accomplishes everything she needs to accomplish here, and anything else comes secondary to her. As a coach, you love that allegiance, but at the same time she's tapping into the opportunity that's afforded her."