May 7, 2010
Dietrick is a game-changer
by Morgan Kelly/
Blake Dietrick has the ability to take over the game at any time.
Blake Dietrick finds it impossible to settle for anything other than excellence. Whether she is practicing in her backyard or starting in the conference championship, Dietrick always strives to be the best.
In her first two years with the Wellesley (Mass.) Raiders, Dietrick racked up 137 goals, 67 assists and enough accolades to fill up an entire library. The 5-foot-10 bubbly all-star talked about the shock of her most notable lacrosse accomplishment: All-America honors.
“It was so exciting,” said Dietrick, “but I can’t peak as a sophomore. There’s always room to improve; getting awards like that is great, but it just motivates me to get better.”
In the first three games of 2009, Dietrick scored 15 more goals, leaving her just 46 goals short on an inevitable march to shatter Wellesley’s all-time scoring record. Chris Molonea, who has been coaching at Wellesley since 1982 – and who has sent several players, including Penn’s Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Emma Spiro, to play big-time college ball – said that Dietrick is, without question, the best player she has ever coached.
“She can virtually do anything and everything we ask her to do,” said Molonea, “whether it’s on a game field or on a practice field.”
The ability to take over a game in an instant is what makes Dietrick so dangerous. In the conference match-up against Framingham on April 8, for example, Dietrick was face-guarded for the majority of the contest and still managed to score five goals, including two individual efforts that sealed the 15-15 tie.
With just 40 seconds left to play, Dietrick scored off of a free position shot to bring the Raiders within one goal of the Flyers. Seconds later, Dietrick scrambled for a groundball and barreled through four defenders to notch the final point of the game.
“She’s an athlete,” said Framingham coach Stacey Freda. “It’s not about her being a lacrosse player but it’s that she is a pure athlete. It’s unparalleled.”
Also setting Dietrick apart is her ability to get in the zone when she plays.
“I think that every ground ball and every draw control is a pass to me,” she said. “When I think about it that way, I almost feel like the ball just comes to me and the game slows down.”
Dietrick makes it all look easy. Her natural athleticism combined with a superior work ethic has placed Dietrick at the top tier in every sport she tries. She set the school course record in cross-country as a freshman and she is a three-time Bay State Conference first-team all-star in basketball. She was a Boston Globe All-Scholastic in lacrosse as both a freshman and sophomore, and an UnderArmour Underclass All-American last year, in addition to her U.S. Lacrosse honors.
With her level of competitiveness, Dietrick plans to pick one sport where she can compete at the highest level in college, and she seems to be leaning towards Division I lacrosse; while she has options and ideas about where she might go, Dietrick is in no rush to commit, not when there’s still work to do to keep getting better.
“She puts pressure on herself to be the best athlete she can be,” said Leslie Frank, the head coach at Westwood High School, who is Dietrick’s coach for the Mass Elite club team. “She’s pretty effortless and a lot of it comes naturally, but a lot of it comes from just digging in and working hard.”
Dietrick’s humble confidence and insatiable desire to improve makes her the perfect package from a coaching perspective.
“She never waits for the next day or next game to try something out,” said Frank. “She just does it and it usually doesn’t take her many reps to do it either.”
As far back as Dietrick can remember, she has had a lacrosse stick in her hand. Her father, Steve, played lacrosse at Williams College and has been one of Dietrick’s greatest influences as an athlete. Spending her summers with her younger brother Tucker on the fields at Wellesley College, Dietrick has never seen practicing as a chore.
“I just love to play lacrosse,” said Dietrick. “Just playing the game is most important to me.”
Dietrick also loves to win. As one of only five returning players to the Raiders’ roster this season, Dietrick serves as a field general for the defending Bay State Conference Herget Division champions. Dietrick takes it upon herself to lead by example and to mentor the younger players after each whistle.
“Blake is one of those players that makes everyone around her better,” said Molonea, “and she shows kids that this is the level you can attain if you work hard enough.”
At the conference and individual levels, Dietrick has done it all. One of the few things missing from Dietrick’s catalog of accomplishments, however, is a lacrosse state championship. The Raiders have fallen just short the past two seasons, losing close contests to Westwood in the sectional finals each time, and hope to change their fate this year.
“I won a championship my freshman year in basketball, so I know what it’s like,” said Dietrick, “and I want that feeling again.”
