Lindbergh field hockey’s biggest strength this season, per head coach Andrew Shipp, is a simple one, but a necessity for a team to work: they all get along.

“It sounds silly, but it’s one of those things,” Shipp said. “They all like each other. They want to be around each other, so they’re willing to come in at our 7 a.m. Saturday morning practices. They stick around. They show up early. They want to be there for each other.”

With tryouts recently completed, the varsity squad was finalized with 16 players made up of six seniors, six juniors and four sophomores. One early standout is Elaina Meyer, a four-year varsity starter heading into her senior year. Unique this year about Meyer, however, is her decision to run on the girls cross country team in addition to playing field hockey. Though the sports are both during the fall season, the coaches are working together to ensure she can compete on both teams.

“The kid’s awesome,” Shipp said. “She’s realized the love for running through watching her brother do cross country and running with her mom. She’s really trying to take on both sports this year. We’re working with the cross country coach to figure out a running schedule, but we’re really excited to have Elaina and work with her to figure out all the things that need to happen so she can do both sports … Elaina is one of those standout star players.”

Another standout to look for this season is goalie Evy Przygoda.

“She’s the backbone of our defense. Honestly, this kid is just amazing,” Shipp said. “Last year in our playoff game versus MICDS, she set the school record for saves in a game — she had 15 saves in a quarter. She helped hold MICDS scoreless for the first quarter, which is unheard of for them versus a public school team like us. Awesome kid. A lot to build around.”

While the senior class makes up just six of the team’s 16, Shipp emphasized that each player will contribute in her own way. He’s also looking to the juniors for strength for years to come.

As far as goals this season, the team has a few: to win their pool at the Gateway Classic tournament to kick off the season — a feat they accomplished last year, to win at least two of three games in a tournament held in Kansas City in October and to make it further in the state tournament than ever before.

“Being able to be competitive in the top public school conference and being able to make the Elite Eight, that’s kind of what their base goals are,” Shipp said. “All of them have individual goals that we’ll work on, but being able to compete as a team and take our program from being that Sweet 16 team up to an Elite Eight team.”

As far as the Flyers’ most anticipated games this season, Shipp shared, “Being able to be competitive and have the opportunity to win in every game is something that they look forward to.”

He also shared that the game against Cor Jesu Academy — new on the Flyers’ schedule this season — will be a “fun little rivalry game” as Shipp coaches lacrosse at CJA in the spring.

Shipp is going into his twelfth year coaching the Lindbergh High School field hockey team. A part of the program since its inception in 2015, Shipp says he sees it getting stronger each season, in part due to the start of its middle school team three years ago — a rarity for a public school to have.

“The kids are doing great. They’re loving it down there,” Shipp said. “We’ve done some push-ins to the PE classrooms over the last couple of years at the middle school to try and get kids interested just so they can see the sport because here in St. Louis, unless you’re at one of the private schools, you can’t play field hockey. So we’re trying to get them that experience to see that the sport exists.”

Following a Jamboree tournament on Aug. 21, in which the Flyers took on Edwardville and Rockwood Summit, Lindbergh field hockey will start its official season on Sept. 1 at John Burroughs.