Mercury All-Area: Peyton Shellaway’s special qualities guided the way in Boyertown’s historic season

Boyertown junior Peyton Shellaway has the quality that every coach looks for in a player.

The only problem is the coach can’t quite describe it.

“I don’t know what you call it,” said Boyertown field hockey coach Alicia Terrizzi. “I just know that it’s not normal, and it doesn’t come around very often.”

Whatever ‘it’ is, this quality was the driving force in the Bears’ historic run to the PIAA 3A state tournament in 2023. Leading the way was Peyton Shellaway, our Mercury All-Area Field Hockey Player of the Year.

Shellaway was a National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-Region selection with 19 goals and 16 assists in leading the Bears to a 18-7 finish this season. More importantly, she served as the lynchpin for a young squad that finished as the PAC runner-up to Methacton and earned the No. 4 seed for the District 1-3A tournament.

“Winning loose balls, making clean tackles, interceptions, corners drawn – you name it, and she led us in that category,” said Terrizzi.

Peyton’s had plenty of time to prepare. With her mom Kyle – a former Boyertown and UMass-Amherst standout – serving as first a mentor and later as a coach, Peyton’s had a stick in her hand “since I could walk.”

“I would dribble around the house,” she recalled. “We’d set up cones around the living room and I’d just play there.”

By the time Peyton reached second grade, Kyle was instrumental in starting the youth field hockey program in Boyertown. Technically, the program started with third graders, but that rule proved flexible.

“My mom said she would only coach if I could play,” Peyton laughed.

History would repeat itself five years later, when Peyton met coach Terrizzi on the 7th grade team. To that point, 7th and 8th grade teams were separate at Boyertown.

“But I like to win,” said Terrizzi, “and we didn’t have anyone else who could play center midfield.”

Once again, Shellaway found herself proving her worth against players a year older – great preparation for the following season, where she’d have a year’s experience on the 8th grade team.

It never happened. COVID protocols canceled the 2020 campaign, meaning Shellaway would have to resume her scholastic field hockey career in high school. But where?

Shellaway and coach Terrizzi have a different type of player-coach relationship. Talking with the pair is akin to two old friends introducing a third person into their conversation.

Sometimes, Peyton laughs before Terrizzi gets to the punch line. Other times, Peyton can finish the thought before Terrizzi’s done speaking. Their easy manner is refreshing, made all the more impressive by the road they’ve traveled together.

Maybe it was that ‘it’ factor, maybe it was her early start in the sport. Either way, Peyton Shellaway’s always seemed destined for great things on the field. The University of Iowa commit was strong enough as a youth player to look into playing for The Hill School – only the top scholastic team in the country for parts of the past two season.

When it came time to apply to Hill, Shellaway could think of one person she wanted to write her personal recommendation – her middle school coach, Terrizzi.

“And it kind of broke my heart,” Terrizzi remembered. “I want what’s best for Peyton. I was happy for her, and at the same time sad for Boyertown.”

Those feelings were magnified when during Shellaway’s 8th grade year, Terrizzi accepted the head coaching position at the high school. Now she found herself in the unenviable position of writing a letter of recommendation that could result in losing a top player on her own roster for the next four years.

“I took the job, thinking she was off to the Hill School,” said Terrizzi. “As I said, heartbreaking.”

But Peyton mended her coach’s broken heart with one phone call in February 2021. “I’m driving home from school, and Kyle (Shellaway) tells me Peyton wants to talk to me,” said Terrizzi. “So I’m preparing for the worst.”

She got just the opposite.

“Hill School was great – I went on the tours, and I got accepted,” Peyton recalled. “But in the end, I couldn’t see myself leaving Boyertown.”

Coach’s reaction? “I just remember I started screaming,” said Terrizzi.

Boyertown field hockey was immediately changed for the better. Peyton’s freshman and sophomore years saw the Bears return to District playoffs after an extended absence, with the 2022 season culminating in the school’s first PAC title in 20 years.

But this season, the young Bears reached the PAC finals once more only to be upended by Methacton – whom they’d beaten twice in the regular season.

“Going into that game, I knew it was going to be hard to beat (Methacton) three times in a row,” said Shellaway. “And when we did lose, everyone was so upset.

“But I knew there was a high chance we’d see them again in Districts, with a chance to get to states. And that was the game we really wanted.”

The memory of the days leading up to that fourth meeting with Methacton – the game that ultimately put the Bears in states for the first time in recent program history – helped Terrizzi explain Shellaway’s ‘it’ factor.

“I’ve coached a lot of good players, both in college (Terrizzi served as an assistant at Bloomsburg for seven years) and high school, but what Peyton has is not normal,” she said. “She will do anything to win a game. She’s technically sound, incredibly driven. She’s never unfocused at practice. Her presence on the field spreads that focus through the team because everyone follows that example.
“If she gets beaten, it’s not gonna happen again – because it bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“It does bother me,” Shellaway agreed.

And it didn’t happen again, as the Bears topped Methacton 2-1 in the District quarterfinals with the deciding goal coming off Shellaway’s stick in the third quarter. Their spot in states secure, the Bears proceeded into a showdown with No. 1 Conestoga, playing the eventual District champions to a standstill for three quarters before ‘Stoga prevailed 4-2.

While the Bears’ trip to states ended in a frustrating 2-1 loss at Wyoming Valley West, the best is still to come for the reborn Boyertown program. Shellaway has another year at Boyertown with a now-seasoned group of young teammates and an incoming class of freshmen that excites both player and coach.

“Peyton’s a great leader, but it’s not only her skill on the field,” said freshman Kendal Gilbert. “She’s humble, she works hard – the whole team looks up to her. It’s like having a high-level, experienced coach playing with you every day. You wouldn’t want to disappoint her because she wants to make everyone better.”

For example, Shellaway’s versatility meant she was the Bears’ best option for corner inserts – but Terrizzi wanted her at the top of the circle on corners.

“I was new to inserting,” recalled Gilbert, “and Peyton’s inserts were always so perfect while mine were… very far from that.
“Instead of practicing shooting, she spent the practice with me one day just helping with my inserts. Without her help, I probably wouldn’t be able to insert.”

Shellaway committed to Iowa during the season and plans to play there starting in the fall of 2025. The Hawkeyes finished No. 10 in the country this past season, part of a Big Ten conference that saw exactly half of its teams finish in the Top 20.

Rest assured, Shellaway will be ready for the challenge. She’s already preparing for the challenge her coach laid down for next fall. “Next year, my expectation is that we’ll go significantly further than we did this year,” said Terrizzi. “There’s no ceiling – we need to make a run.”

“When I looked at the District rankings, saw us at number four with a first-round bye – I knew we’d done something this year,” said Shellaway. “You can’t skip steps in improving, and this was our first goal.”

“I don’t think she came out of a game once,” said Terrizzi. “We have her defending corners, moving throughout the midfield the entire game. She does everything out there – more than a little bit.”

“But she is incapable of allowing the team to fail. It’s just… it’s not going to happen, no matter what.”

Just like that ‘it’ factor, Peyton’s Shellaway’s best qualities are the hardest to quantify.