JAMES CITY COUNTY — Rising Warhill High School junior Kaitlyn Jones already knows where she will be heading to college. Jones recently verbally committed to play Division I field hockey for the Old Dominion University Monarchs beginning with the 2027 season.
Jones, who dreamed of taking the field hockey pitch for a college, recalled her early years in the sport.
“I started on accident,” Jones said. “I thought I was signing up for cheer. I was a complete beginner with no idea where it would take me.”
Picking up the stick for the first time as a seventh grader at Toano Middle School, Jones was instantly hooked. After attending a field hockey summer camp at Christopher Newport University, Jones was recruited by a local club team to begin playing at the next level.
“When eighth grade came around, I started shocking people with how much improvement I had from such a short period of time,” Jones said.
While most of her teammates had been exposed to the sport at a young age, Jones wanted to even the playing field by catching up. To realize that goal, she wakes up at 4:30 in the morning and goes out for daily runs before school, hits 100 balls daily at the WISC, and has added in her own version of strength and conditioning workouts during the summer months.
“I knew what I wanted and I knew how much I had to work for it. I always thought I was behind in my journey and I felt I had to work even harder because I was always a step behind the girls on my team. I went from one of the worst players on my team to one of the best in a little over a year because of the work I put in,” Jones said.
During her freshman season at Warhill, Jones earned a spot on the varsity roster.
“As a freshman on the team, I was taking a spot from one of the other girls and I was just getting put under a lot of the time. I wasn’t getting recognized, all the upperclassmen never talked to me. It was a really hard thing for me to have to deal with,” Jones said.
Her experience almost made her pull away from the sport entirely.
“Going into sophomore year, I was really dreading my high school season. I didn’t know how the atmosphere was going to be. I actually had a lot of fun, nothing serious had happened, but I started to see more recognition from the local area,” Jones said.
After competing and showcasing her skills at various college clinics during her first two high school seasons, ODU came calling. While she won’t take the field for the Monarchs until the fall of 2027, she has already felt at home with head coach Andrew Griffiths.
“When June 15 came, the day that coaches can call to recruit you, the pressure was on. It’s a really stressful time. The first day I got an email from Coach Andrew asking to set up a call with me. I spoke to him that day and he told me how much he wanted me to play for the Monarchs. He didn’t just recruit me as a player but as a person,” Jones said.
Jones verbally committed to play for the school not long after that call.
During her final two seasons on the pitch at Warhill, Jones hopes to continue to better herself both on and off the field.
“I have always told myself, ‘why stop now?’ If I want this dream, and I’ve been wanting it for a long time, why stop?” Jones said.
Keep up with her field hockey journey on her Instagram.