“She’s in the blue shorts.”

That was about all the direction needed to find Phia Gladieux at Pleasant Valley on Saturday.

There was the Penn State record-holder, U.S. national team player and 2024 Olympian, right in the middle of a crowd of first- and second-graders wrapping up their morning field hockey session.

Sticks were everywhere. Kids darted around the field. Coaches and parents helped keep everything moving.

And in the middle of it was Gladieux, demonstrating skills, offering encouragement, joining a huddle and seemingly enjoying the commotion as much as anyone.

For all Gladieux has accomplished, there was little about the scene that felt grandiose. That was part of what made it work.

The young players surrounding her were near the beginning of their relationship with field hockey. Gladieux has followed hers from a Pennsylvania youth program to Penn State, the U.S. national team and the Olympic Games.

But on this morning, there was something much simpler connecting them.

They were there because they loved the same game.

“The biggest advice I always give to younger girls is to continue finding ways to grow and learn, but also just have fun,” Gladieux said. “A lot of times we lose that perspective in sports. At the end of the day, you’re playing it because you love it.”

Gladieux spent Saturday working with different age groups as part of a Pleasant Valley Youth Association field hockey clinic. After the first- and second-graders finished, she had a short break before the fifth- and sixth-grade group took the field.

She brought the same patience and enthusiasm to the older players, demonstrating stickhandling and working through drills before offering encouragement as they tried the skills themselves.

For Molly Boylan, one of PVYA’s third- and fourth-grade coaches, having Gladieux there gave the girls an opportunity to see where the sport they are learning could someday take them.

“It really shows the girls where you can go with this sport,” Boylan said. “You can play in high school. You can play in college. You can play professionally. You can play in the Olympics.

“Maybe they want to be an Olympian one day. Maybe they want to play in college. It shows that there are opportunities out there.”

Not everyone surrounding Gladieux necessarily understood just how far she had already gone.

“I think some of the older girls understand how accomplished she is,” Boylan said. “The little ones, I think they just think she’s another coach. But we watched her in the Olympics. It’s pretty surreal watching her on TV, and now she’s here coaching our girls.”

Building from the ground up

Gladieux’s visit came as PVYA continues to develop its youth field hockey program.

Pleasant Valley is in its third season competing in the Lehigh Valley Youth Field Hockey League, and Boylan said participation has increased by about 30 players since last year.

The association also offers a winter session to keep sticks in players’ hands and their skills fresh. Some of the girls who entered the program in its early years have now spent several seasons learning and playing together.

For Boylan, that continuity is as important as the skills they are developing.

“Their skills are definitely improving,” Boylan said. “They’re working together. They’re playing with the same girls they played with three years ago. We’re hoping they continue to come back, continue to grow and move up to the next level.”

Keeping them coming back means making sure development and enjoyment aren’t mutually exclusive.

“This is when their memories start,” Boylan said. “I remember playing sports with girls when I was some of these girls’ ages, and I played all through high school with them. It starts here.

“Have fun, learn some skills, grow the game, compete at the next level. That’s the goal for us.”

Gladieux understands the importance of those early experiences.

Growing up around field hockey in Pennsylvania, she saw the strength of the sport throughout the region. Now she wants to help introduce more players to it and give them reasons to continue.

“It all starts at these ages,” Gladieux said. “You want to make it fun. You want to have them see a dream or aspiration they can reach.”

She was once one of them

Long before Gladieux became one of the players young girls could look up to, she was one of the girls looking up.

Her older sister, Sarah, played field hockey, and Gladieux followed her into the sport in third grade.

She wasn’t immediately the player she would eventually become.

“My first year, I was really bad,” Gladieux said with a laugh. “I remember I bawled my eyes out after a tournament because I really didn’t play, and I said, ‘I never want to be in that position again.’ It really lit a fire inside me to get better.”

She began spending more time at the turf with her father and practicing constantly in the driveway.

“I literally became obsessed with it,” Gladieux said. “I would come to the turf with my dad all the time. I would practice in my driveway constantly.

“I saw it reflected in my play, and for me, that was so fun. It was like, ‘Wow, if I really put my mind to something, I can get better.’”

There were older players for Gladieux to follow, too. She watched girls from her area advance to Division I programs, win national championships and reach levels she hoped she might someday experience herself.

National-team players gave her an even bigger target.

“When I was their age, I looked up to the national team girls so much,” Gladieux said. “They inspired me to become an Olympian and reach for the stars. I want to do that for them.”

Gladieux eventually became one of those players herself.

She finished her Penn State career as the program’s all-time leader in goals and points, totaling 94 goals and 202 points. Gladieux earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in each of her five seasons and was a five-time All-American, including four first-team selections.

In 2024, she became the fourth Penn State field hockey player to make a U.S. Olympic team. Gladieux scored her first Olympic goal in a 1-1 tie against Spain during the Paris Games.

Her international career has continued since then as a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team.

It is a long way from the third-grader who once left a tournament in tears.

But Gladieux hasn’t forgotten what made her want to come back.

Growing the game

Field hockey is now Gladieux’s full-time pursuit, but she is still learning.

That is one reason she has developed a love for coaching. Working with youth programs gives her an opportunity to pass along some of what she continues to learn at the highest levels of the sport.

“I’ve always had such a love for coaching,” Gladieux said. “I think it’s important to come out to different programs and spread the knowledge of the things that I’m learning.”

There is technical knowledge to share, of course. But Gladieux also wants young players to understand that improvement sometimes requires being uncomfortable, making mistakes and failing.

Most of all, she wants them to keep enjoying the game long enough to discover where it might take them.

“I want to show them that they can do what I’m doing,” Gladieux said. “It’s possible. Just dream big.”

For PVYA, an experience like Saturday’s can help with both parts of that mission.

The girls learned new skills from someone who has competed at the highest level of their sport. They also got high-fives, autographs, photos and another morning on a field with their teammates.

One of the younger players, Emma, had Gladieux’s autograph on both her shirt and stick by the end of the morning.

Asked what she liked most about field hockey, she needed only one word.

“Games.”

For all the places the sport can lead, that simple answer wasn’t far removed from the message Gladieux was trying to deliver.

She was once a third-grader with a stick, following her older sister into a youth program and discovering how much she loved the game.

It eventually took her to Penn State, around the world with the U.S. national team and to the Olympic Games.

Where it takes the girls at Pleasant Valley remains to be seen.

For now, that hardly seems like the point.

They have sticks in their hands, teammates around them and games to play. As they grow older, the competition will get tougher and expectations may grow with it.

Gladieux’s advice was to hold onto something much simpler.

“At the end of the day, you’re playing it because you love it.”

And Saturday, right in the middle of all those kids running around Pleasant Valley, she looked very much like someone who still does.