IU, USA team have ‘very similar’ styles of play

Three Hoosiers are among the nation’s best field hockey athletes.

Assistant coach Kelly Doton is a midfielder for the USA field hockey team, assistant coach Jill Dedman is goalkeeper for the national team and Brenna Moeljadi is a defender for the women’s under-21 national team.

Kelly Doton

Doton started her field hockey career at Wake Forest where she scored 13 goals in her first year. She won awards including the 2003 Honda Award for the National Field Hockey Player of the Year and first team All-American in 2002 and 2003.

“I had great coaches at Wake Forest that helped me improve as an athlete,” Doton said.

Doton helped the Demon Deacons win two national championships in 2002 and 2003. But she had other aspirations.

“I tried out for the U.S. team in 2005 and everything went from there,” Doton said.
In 2005, she joined the USA national team, where she played in the New Zealand tour, Australia test series and in many other tours.

She traveled to Chile, the Netherlands and other countries to play against their field hockey national teams.

The U.S. field hockey team has prepared Doton for coaching.

“I think I derive 95 percent of my coaching skills from what I learned at the U.S. field hockey program,” Doton said.

In 2008, she traveled with the team to Beijing to play in the Olympics, where USA placed No. 8.

Jill Dedman

Dedman also has USA national team connections.

Her collegiate career took place at Boston College from 1996 to 2001.

At Boston College, Dedman was a two-time Big East Conference Goalkeeper of the Year in 1998 and 2000 and was a 1999 All-American.

After five years at Boston College, Dedman has been the goalkeeper for the national team since 2001.

“My coach encouraged me to go to the open trials, and then I made the team,” Dedman said.

If she wanted to stay on the team, she would have to make a major change in her life.
“After I made the team, I was told that I had a week to pack my bags and move to Virginia Beach,” Dedman said.

Like Doton, Dedman has played in many national team tours including the Japan, Netherlands and other tours.

She has learned many aspects of goalkeeping that can be applied to coaching after playing on the national team.

“I have also learned from Justine Sowry, one of the best goalkeeper coaches in world, which has helped me with coaching,” Dedman said.

Her skills from the national team should play an important role while she serves as assistant coach for the Hoosiers.

Brenna Moeljadi

Sophomore back Moeljadi started her field hockey career playing at Harvard-Westlake School in Culver City, Calif.

At Harvard-Westlake she won three letters as captain and was elected to the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section All-Tournament Team from 2004 to 2006. 

In 2007, Moeljadi started in seven games as a freshman.

Moeljadi got her first assist against the California Bears, which was the first collegiate game of her career. She scored her first goal against Saint Louis in an 8-0 victory.

“Playing with the U.S. team has helped me in my early years with the Hoosiers,” Moeljadi said. 

Moeljadi was named to the USA Field Hockey Junior Series Squad in July 2008.
She believes that the Hoosiers have a similar style to the U.S. national team.

“The style that we play is very similar to the way the U.S. national team plays,” Moeljadi said.

After starting the first three games in her sophomore year, Moeljadi ended her season with a hip injury which resulted in a medical redshirt.

In 2009, she made the U-21 national team, where she plays defender.

Moeljadi explained how playing with the best athletes in the country will help in the future.

“Playing with them at a really high level in competition is going to help with teams that are aggressive,” Moeljadi said.