Martha Goodridge

My hockey background

I started playing hockey at the age of 8 at my local hockey club. A club I am proudly still part of today representing the ladies 1st team which this year saw us promoted for the first time to the national league. I also did netball and athletics to a high level representing regional teams in athletics but hockey won and I decided to focus solely during my senior school years. I focussed on reaching my goal of playing for my country, which I proudly fulfilled in 2022.

I was fortunate enough to have been selected for the international squad which travelled to Scotland, Netherlands and Spain for the 8 nations. At this tournament I was awarded the England hockey “embracing Diversity” award which was followed with the reason of “Martha has a super talent of bringing the team together off and on the pitch” England Hockey Age group coach. Despite my love for being on the pitch, one of my greatest achievements in 2023 was to recover from a serious  injury and get back to full fitness which allowed me to rejoin u18 England training in June of 2023. The injury allowed me to persevere through difficult times and strive to meet the goal of returning back to high level training.

Since u14’s I have captained my club age group into 6 national finals, with placing third in the National Outdoor Championships in 2023 and third in the National indoor competition in 2024. 

Why I want to play college hockey

Playing hockey in the US seems like an amazing opportunity. Through playing international hockey with England it has taught me that each country can offer different learning experiences to develop one's hockey skills. The opportunity of playing the US is one which would push me to new levels and also advance my hockey career into a unique path which is challenging but fulfilling.

Another reason why playing in the US seems like an amazing experience is the facilities, coaching and opportunities that are available. The ability to experience high level academics with high level physical activity is a compromise which I believe is hard to achieve, but I think US universities offer these unique high level all rounded experiences to an amazing standard.