Jillianne Whitfield

Steve Virgen

At Newport Harbor High, the Sailors have nicknamed their girls field

hockey team, “Chicks with Sticks,” a cute moniker, but it was just

another reason to make Jillianne Whitfield laugh.

Whitfield, a Newport Harbor senior, was skeptical, to say the

least, when she first encountered field hockey as a freshman.

“At first I never wanted to play field hockey,” said Whitfield,

whose sports of choice were basketball and soccer. “Looking at those

girls playing in skirts, I was thinking you would never catch me

playing that sport. But look at me now.”

Look at her now, indeed.

Whitfield has been the catalyst for the Sailors’ 13-1 start. Last week, she earned Most Valuable Player honors in leading Newport to

the Orange County Invitational championship.

And, if that wasn’t enough: Whitfield, the Daily Pilot Athlete of

the Week, has completed much of her success this season while playing

on a bad ankle, which has been heavily taped during games.

“It’s still bothering me,” Whitfield said Tuesday when she scored

two goals to lead the Sailors to a 3-0 win over Edison. “I just have

it taped up and I just go. I have tried to be sensible about it. I

know it will get better eventually.”

Whitfield had a premonition this season would be special, so she’s

not about to let a nagging injury stop her. Though she plays three

sports for Newport, she immediately turned her focus toward this

season when the Sailors lost in the Tournament of Champions for the

third straight year last fall.

Last year, Newport lost to Harvard-Westlake, 1-0, in a shootout,

and the previous two years, the Sailors won the Sunset League title

only to miss out on the season-ending Tournament of Champions crown.

“At the end of the season last year we were sitting there and we

had just lost in strokes,” Whitfield said. “The first thing that came

to my mind was that I’m not going to take this anymore. We knew

[winning the TOC] would be our main goal this season.”

Whitfield, who has played basketball and competed in track and

field at Newport, was involved with the off-season Futures program,

the club-type system that specializes in developing field hockey

players, February through May. It was her second year in the program.

“I seriously think I have gained an advantage by doing that

program,” Whitfield said. “

In June, Whitfield was scouted by college coaches while attempting

to qualify for California’s team that would compete in the National

Futures Tournament in Virginia Beach, and she was selected.

“I had so much fun,” said Whitfield, who plans to play field

hockey in college next year. “We got to play a lot of games on turf.

I really love turf. It was so hot and humid in the middle of July,

but it was a lot of fun.”

From her efforts in the tournament, Whitfield earned a spot on the

Futures Elite squad, a team that is just below two groups that are

for selection purposes for the Olympic women’s team. Whitfield was

picked out 250 girls at the national tournament and she will have the

choice of playing in Holland or Australia in July.

“I think I want to go to Australia,” Whitfield said.

Before that happens Whitfield wants to lead the Sailors to a

Sunset League championship and a TOC title.