Q & A - Meet freshman midfielder Anne Middeldorp
True freshman Anne Middeldorp has climbed up the field hockey lineup rather quickly this season.
The midfielder did not receive any playing time in three of Central Michigan’s first four games. Since then, head coach Cristy Freese moved her into the starting lineup against Miami (Ohio) and then-No. 13 Iowa.
Central Michigan Life sat down with Middeldorp for a Q & A session.
JP: When did you become notified that you would be starting, and were you surprised? AM: Last week, Cristy (Freese) came up to me after the game against (American University). I played the second half, and she said to me, ‘well the defense is trusting you, so you’re getting yourself the starting position.’ So I was really happy with that.
JP: How did it feel to be one of the 11 players who have earned starting jobs? AM: When you start, it feels really good. The people have trust in you, so you can be a part of a team and help them to win the game.
JP: How would you describe coach Cristy Freese? Senior Erin Dye said she scared her at first. AM: I know what she means. Cristy can be really tough, but she looks after us. She knows what she’s doing. She knows how to adjust to the play, and she coaches, I think, very well. But, yes, she can scare us but in a good way.
JP: How did you become involved with field hockey? AM: I started playing field hockey when I was six. It was in my home country, the Netherlands. And both of my parents played hockey, so that’s basically how I started. They just put me in the sport and said, ‘well, have fun,’ and I always enjoyed it.
JP: Why did you choose CMU? AM: I talked to the coaches a lot, especially Earl (Marais, an assistant coach), and he gave me a really good feeling about CMU, and their student-athlete program suited what I was searching for.
JP: What are you looking into majoring in? AM: I’m interested in majoring in management, that’s where my interest lies. Maybe economics and I'm also looking at history.
JP: You are from Den Haag, Netherlands. How does it compare to Mount Pleasant? AM: It’s really different. I’m from a pretty big city with, I think, 500,000 people, and Mount Pleasant’s a lot smaller. But I’m not all familiar with Mount Pleasant because I’m on campus all the time. I like the people here. They’re very nice, compared to Dutch people. I’ve been here for almost two months now, so I’m kind of getting use to everything in America.
JP: Has there been an acclimation period? AM: I think it lasted one or two weeks before I got used to everything. Like the conditioning, how their game plan is; it was all very different from how I used to play in Holland.
