FIELD HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Walpole's Silvestro is small wonder

Every good team has that type of player. The type of player whose energy that inspires teammates. The type of player whose stature makes opponents underestimate them. The type of player whose character draws people to them.

There is always a role for those types of players. But when that player is arguably your best player, then you have something special.

That’s what the Walpole High field hockey team had in 2008 Daily News Transcript Field Hockey Player of the Year Taylor Silvestro this fall. In a way, the senior captain typified the Porkers’ season. During a year that massive turnover left the storied program short in veteran stars that the team has the team’s trademark for decades, it was the diminutive center forward that led the Porkers that many thought may be vulnerable to yet another Bay State Conference and Division 1 South sectional title.

“Taylor, she gives you every thing she has at 5-foot-1, maybe,” said Walpole coach Marianne Murphy. “She works so hard, gives you 100 percent. She wants to do well and is just a great kid, very respectful of her coaches and teammates. Whenever anyone talks of her, they always speak well of her as a player and a person. I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about Taylor.”

Murphy should know, having watched over her career since Silvestro began in Walpole youth camps in fifth grade, working her way up the Porker ladder through the middle school program and the freshman and J.V. teams before finally landing on varsity, culminating in being named BSC Herget MVP in her senior season.

“I make sure I leave everything on the field,” said Silvestro. “My coach says that I have explosive speed and that I surprise people because I am so much smaller. But how big you are doesn’t matter because the game is played close to the ground.”

While Silvestro may not be one of the textbook Walpole greats, she did share the classic upbringing of many of her Porker predecessors as white and blue blood flowed through her veins. Three of her aunts played for Walpole, as did a trio of cousins that she grew watching play in the Porker Pen -- Karen, Susan and Lauren Macomber.

And although she may not have donned the outfit of the famous Piglet mascot that past Transcript Players of the Year like Tacy Zysk and Kim Cunniff had, she does have a connection to the suit – her grandmother made it.

It didn’t come easy for Silvestro, though. She did not make the varsity until her junior year but had an instant impact, earning the starting spot at center forward and scored 19 goals, including a breakout postseason in which she scored a team-high nine time as Walpole won its fourth straight South title.

But while Silvestro was a complementary piece as junior on a team that featured Division 1 talents like Cunniff (Quinnipiac) and Nikki Panciocco (UMass), she knew she would be leaned on more this season. Silvestro was one of just four returning starters and would be playing with two new wing forwards.

Silvestro did not shy away from the increased responsibility on the field, scoring twice in the opener against Dedham and going on to strike for 20 goals and add 12 assists during the regular season to lead the league in points despite battling through some nagging injures.

“Her quickness, her speed and leadership gets people going, they feed off her,” said Murphy. “Some days, I would say is anyone else going out there going to play? She always showed up no matter what, even on the days when her knee was bothering her.”

 But the numbers failed to tell the full story of Silvestro’s value to an inexperienced squad. She embraced her new responsibility off the field as well as a mentor to the younger players that the Porkers were going to need to rely on immediately in order to be successful. 

“I wanted to make sure that it was a close team,” said Silvestro, who shared captaincy with the only other two returning senior starters, Emily Painten and Kellie Sullivan. “We were so young that I just wanted to make sure that everyone was having fun.”

Not only did the Porkers have fun, but they won. Walpole went unbeaten in its first 14 contests before having their incredible run of 53 straight regular season games without a defeat snapped with back-to-back losses to Framingham and Notre Dame of Worcester. But the Porkers came through when they needed to, entering the final game of the season a point behind Wellesley and seizing the Herget Division crown with a 2-0 win.

“They were all about the team,” said Murphy of her captains. “Taylor, Emily and Kelly, it was never about them and everything was about the team and that’s why we were successful.”

For the second straight year, Silvestro made the tournament a showcase as the Porkers claimed the Division 1 South crown. Of the eight goals that Walpole scored in claiming the sectional, Silvestro figured in five, notching a goal in the opener against Hingham, a goal and an assist in the quarters against Dennis-Yarmouth, and setting up a pair of goals in the final against Somerset.

For the second year, however, Silvestro’s season ended with a one-goal loss in the state semifinals, this time in a controversial 2-1 decision against Weston. Still, Silvestro has no regrets about her last campaign in a Porker kilt.

“We were wicked proud,” said Silvestro. “People did not think that we were going to be able to go as far as we did. I was really happy as far as how the season went.”

And at least one goal that she set at the beginning of the year was accomplished.

“The thing I’ll remember about this team is that we had so much fun,” said Silvestro. “Everyone wasn’t afraid to laugh at themselves.”

Silvestro takes her unique game north next year to the University of Vermont, where she will once again be carrying on another Porker legacy. In 2004, coach Nicki Houghton took a chance on another undersized by aggressive and athletic Walpole forward named Danielle Collins. Four years, later Collins left as the program’s all-time leading scorer.