There is good. And then there is Madison Warfel.

Hofstra field hockey star Madison Warfel had a breakout year, receiving multiple Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Player of the Week awards for her play. Even with all the recognition from the CAA and her teammates, Warfel still tries to stay motivated and remains strictly goal-oriented.

“My biggest motivation is the personal feeling of achieving your goals; saying, ‘This is what success is going to be for me,’ so then I want to push myself to achieving whatever I set my own goals to be,” Warfel said.

Warfel amassed a total of 17 points on the year, thanks to eight goals and nine assists. Her stellar individual play helped the Pride climb out of their slow 0-4 start to the season.

“This is my second year playing forward,” Warfel said. “I used to play in the midfield, so this is new and fun, helping my team get some goals.”

“I think it is really great when we have a whole team effort getting to the goal,” she continued. “I’m really proud of the team getting up and scoring a lot more goals then we did last year.”

Even with all of her achievements on the field, Warfel is no stranger to academic accolades. She recently received an award for academic excellence in sociology.

“I am actually really proud of that, because I just want to be the most well-rounded person that I can be,” Warfel said. “Striving to push myself in school even when we have busy practice weeks or traveling, getting the work in and putting the best paper out that you can do is really important to me and I’m proud of that.”

Warfel has made Dean’s List every semester during her time at Hofstra. Last semester, she even made the Provost’s List.

“It’s really a lot of time management,” she said. “When I get my syllabus, I write down when I have all my big papers and assignments and I try to stay on top of assignments so I don’t get caught up around midterms or important points of a semester.”

Warfel does not let her focus on academics take away from having fun, however. She has learned when to pick spots to just relax and enjoy time with family, friends and her teammates.

“We like to go around Long Island,” Warfel said. “We just drive around sometimes. We go to Long Beach. We’ve been to [The] Witches Brew. I had never been there before, so that was cool. My favorite time is my free time with them.”     

Warfel treats her teammates like a big family. As the second oldest of seven children, having a lot of family is normal for her. She relishes the opportunity to be a role model to all of her younger siblings back home in Pennsylvania.

“I have one older brother and five younger siblings that range in age from 20 to just 5 years old,” Warfel said . “My youngest sibling isn’t in school yet, so he comes to all my games. I want them to look up to me.” Her younger sister has already picked up field hockey, which makes her really happy. “I’m proud that my little sister really looks up to me … she sees all the game day posts and says, ‘That’s how I want to be when I’m at college.’”

Warfel has received guidance from various people. including her dad. “He really wants me to succeed, and him pushing me, especially in field hockey, it helped me a lot to get stronger,” she said.

She also credits her father with teaching her how to push her team forward and stay levelheaded for the betterment of her team.

Despite the lifelong bonds she has forged with her teammates, Warfel knows that her four years at Hofstra will not last forever. She has big plans in store once she graduates this coming May.

“I plan to apply to some graduate assistant positions and try to get into coaching,” she said. “I want to see if I can get my master’s, but I really want to be involved with field hockey, because it’s something I really love a lot.”

Images courtesy of Hofstra Athletics