Antrim Hockey Player has become one of the best goalkeepers in the world

Speaking candidly, one of the best shotstoppers on earth reveals a few of her biggest life lessons, from the benefits of baking to why we all could all use a bit of Dutch bluntness…

Save for a referee’s wristwatch, you won’t find a more dependable pair of hands in sport than Red Bull Athlete and Irish Women’s Hockey Goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran.

A Jedi-like figure between the posts for Ireland and club side SV Kampong in The Netherlands, she’s been making the impossible look possible for some time now, not least those now-iconic shootout saves vs Canada that took Ireland to its first Olympic Games.

And despite the team’s early exit in the tournament last summer, the Larne-born superstar did her rep no harm with some eye-catching performances in Japan that even led her international captain Katie Mullan to hail McFerran as “the best goalkeeper in the world”.

What makes her career so exceptional, however, is how she constantly overcame adversity. At 15, McFerran’s mother died of breast cancer and the youngster was sent to live in foster care. Rather than wilt, she persevered, rising to the top of the domestic game with Belfast side Pegasus, with whom she won the 2014-2015 league title.

In 2015 her brilliance took her Stateside when she won a field hockey scholarship at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, majoring in Sports Marketing and finding herself in the college’s Team of the Year four years running.

A true Hollywood story? Almost. The 26-year still has unfinished business with SV Kampong and is keen to help Ireland both win a World Cup and get to another Olympic Games (“It took me a long time to feel proud of my performance last summer - but we’re slowly getting there…”). You wouldn’t put it past her - but then who does?

Here are some of her biggest life learnings to date…

My first year at college in America was a real test

“Freshman year was difficult. I moved to a new country but was regularly travelling back to Ireland with the national team, so it was hard to build connections. All the sports have an academic advisor who helps to plan out your schoolwork with the aim of a high GPA - each week you’d hear of American football and basketball players not being eligible for games because they weren’t getting the grades – but it’s still tough. I’m not very book smart so I had to sacrifice a few parties. I was always asking myself, ‘What do I need to achieve this week to keep my scholarship?’”

Playing in Holland has given me a no-bullshit mentality

“The bluntness I encountered with my Dutch teammates [at SV Kampong] was definitely a shock at first. If I wasn’t good in training someone would tell me outright, and it took time for me to realise they were doing it with good intentions, not out of spite. It’s calling a spade a spade, some days you aren’t good and that’s ok, you can’t be perfect every time. It’s actually refreshing because if one of them compliments me I know they mean it. It’s better than beating around the bush as we tend to do back home. Now it’s like ‘If I was shit tell me I’m fucking shit!”

I’ve learnt to stop beating myself up as a player

“Whenever Dutch players make a bad pass or mis-trap the ball they turn around and get on with it. You never see them stress. Whereas we, the Irish team, are like ‘Ah sorry, my mistake’. We’re getting a little bit better with it, but we do overthink the small stuff. It’s a healthy attitude to have when something doesn’t go to plan, we’ll always make the problem bigger in our head. It could be missing an exam or being late - ok, I hate people being late, but it’s not the be all and end all of who you are as a human or what you’re trying to achieve. Things happen, get on with it and that mental stress behind.”

During a shootout I drown everything out

“You’re so intent on doing your job well in a shootout that you zone out from everything else, the noise, the cheering. I’m so focused on this one person coming at me that those eight seconds can feel like a minute. I remember the first two shots [in the Olympic qualifier shootout vs Canada] in Dublin were terrible for me, I was so static. I wasn’t focused enough. My strength is my movement, but I was stood there like a cone. When we were 3-1 down, I thought ‘Get your shit together, this is business, come on’. It was like an outer body experience - you know when someone gives you a good shake to wake you up? I had to do that to myself and it worked.”

A sports psychologist helped me love hockey again

“A few years ago, just before that qualifier in Dublin, it got to the point where I hated hockey and it felt like a chore. I worked with a sports psychologist in Ireland and found it was because I put everything into hockey and had nothing else. When you’re thinking about something 24/7, no matter how much you love it, you’re going to hate it. I realised I hadn’t been playing for myself but for others, and that would make me play worse than what I am capable of, I’d get frustrated, or even injure myself because I was trying too hard. It’s a vicious cycle, so I stepped back and found something else on the side.”

Coming from a tough background makes asking for help difficult

“You’re so used to having to fight and figure everything out yourself and drive yourself. It’s not even about people who have been in foster care but perhaps have had troubles at home, there are so many people from walks of life who have to be independent because they don’t have a choice. You don’t want to ask because you find it hard, even something like where to eat. I still find it hard asking for help because I want it done the way I know I can do it and so I know I’m in control, but actually the more you build networks you the more you’ll see that people just want to help. Making connections is everything. I get more value in helping other people and seeing them succeed.”

I’m already planning for my post-hockey career

“I know hockey is only going to last for so long, so I recently started a course in Digital Marketing. Everything has something to do with marketing, from the teaspoon in your cupboard to the branding of major companies, so once again I find myself balancing study with sport. Last year I worked a little as a personal trainer but realised it wasn’t for me, I just didn’t want to do the same stuff every day. The human body is the human body, it’s not going to change. What I want to do is interact with lots of people and get creative.”

Two-hour study blocks are the only way to study

“I’m a very Type A person. I like being structured, I need to be organised, I need to see my tasks laid out in front of me so I can plan accordingly. When it’s time to study after training I have to literally shut everything off. My phone is put on airplane mode and I cannot be contacted, then I’ll sit down for a two-hour block to work. I get way more done and feel more productive than I would giving myself a whole day to study, where I’ll kind of mosey around doing 10 minutes of study and then 10 minutes of chill. The toughest part is always sitting down, but once I’m sat it’s like ‘let’s go’.”

When life gives me lemons, I make lemon cake

“Playing in a team means I spend a lot of time with other people, which I love, but sometimes alone time is needed. That’s when you’ll find me binging Netflix on the sofa or in the kitchen baking, which I can do at my own pace. It gives me time to figure things out, to think and also not think, to switch off and go with the flow. Some of my best thinking is done when making a triple chocolate fudge cake, as every international athlete should do! My dream is to one day be on <Bake-Off> getting a Paul Hollywood handshake.

I never try to let a day go to waste

“If you don’t enjoy something, you’re not going to put your full effort into it, and it’s going to feel like a chore. Life is so precious, so why waste your time doing something you don’t want to do or takes energy from you when there’s so many other things you can explore? You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Words: Joe Ellison