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<p>A wicked stick to the mouth nearly knocked Kelsey Kolojejchick out of field hockey.</p><p>At about the same time, Kathleen &#8220;Kat&#8221; Sharkey was having trouble scoring with her own stick.</p><p>Interesting how those frustrating times in the sport bred two key members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic field hockey team.</p><p>Kolojejchick and Sharkey, ages 24 and 26, respectively, are forever bonded by winning two Pennsylvania high school state championships together at Wyoming Seminary, gaining national acclaim as All-Americans at different colleges, and fulfilling a childhood quest by making the U.S. team.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just so neat,&#8221; Sharkey said. &#8220;It&#8217;s great having someone you&#8217;ve known for so long experience something so special with you.&#8221;</p><p>But they have another extraordinary link. It&#8217;s likely neither would be an Olympian without an assist from their families.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been able to achieve the goal I wanted since I was 5 years old,&#8221; Kolojejchick said. &#8220;I just really think it was because of my parents and brother.</p><p>&#8220;They made this fire in my heart.&#8221;</p><p>She&#8217;s not kidding.</p><p>It was at the age of 11 when the daughter of Jim and Doreen Kolojejchick of Larksville found herself at a crossroads in sports.</p><p>The way Jim explained it, an opponent took a panicky swing during a game for beginners at the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome and caught his daughter in the mouth, and she began bleeding profusely.</p><p>&#8220;That coach was afraid (that) when she pulled her mouthpiece out, her teeth would be in it,&#8221; Jim said.</p><p>Instead, he said his daughter suffered a laceration to the roof of her mouth that was so severe, doctors could see through it straight to her nasal cavity.</p><p>And when she returned to action, Kelsey Kolojejchick regressed into a cave.</p><p>&#8220;Kelsey was always aggressive in whatever sport she played,&#8221; Jim Kolojejchick said. &#8220;When she came back, she was a little gun-shy. A girl would take a swing and Kelsey would back off, which was not her style.&#8221;</p><p>Finally, her father had seen enough.</p><p>&#8220;She and I had a conversation,&#8221; Jim explained. &#8220;I said, &#8216;This is not you. You have to play like you know how, or find another sport &#8212; and because of what happened to you, I don&#8217;t blame you if that is the case. But you can&#8217;t play afraid.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;That little kid never looked back after that.&#8221;</p><p>It turned out to be a career-saving moment.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s exactly what he said,&#8221; Kelsey Kolojejchick said. &#8220;I think I was on my bed, doing homework. After that injury, I was getting a little more timid. That&#8217;s not my style of play. He just came in to give me that tough criticism, tough love, and said, &#8216;I understand it was a traumatic injury, but you have to suck it up and play tough again.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;I just needed to hear that.&#8221;</p><p>Sharkey, meanwhile, needed help with her shot.</p><p>Initially, the daughter of Tom and Anne Sharkey of Moosic was a talented passer with a penchant for registering assists, but she couldn&#8217;t put the ball in the cage.</p><p>&#8220;It was only my first season, ever, when I first picked up a stick,&#8221; Sharkey remembered. &#8220;I just hadn&#8217;t developed those skills yet.&#8221;</p><p>Her father found ways to improve them.</p><p>A doctor by profession, Tom Sharkey spent countless hours after work in the family&#8217;s backyard, rolling balls to his daughter so she could practice shooting at spots.</p><p>&#8220;She did it. I had nothing to do with it,&#8221; Tom insisted. &#8220;I just did all the kinds of things any parent would do.&#8221;</p><p>It still made an impact on Kat.</p><p>&#8220;My dad would help me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t have a field hockey background, but just went by what he knew from other sports to help me get strength and quickness.&#8221;</p><p>It worked.</p><p>In the first game of her freshman season in high school, Kat Sharkey scored three goals for Wyoming Seminary and was among the nation&#8217;s top goal scorers by the time she had graduated. From there, she blossomed into a two-time NCAA Division I scoring champion at Princeton, finishing first in 2010 and 2012 before making the U.S. Olympic team this year.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just immensely proud,&#8221; Anne Sharkey said. &#8220;There are 500 athletes from the United States who get to go to the Olympics. My daughter&#8217;s one of them. Can&#8217;t even fathom it.&#8221;</p><p>Once Kelsey Kolojejchick wrapped her mind around going full-force toward an Olympic field hockey career, there was no stopping her.</p><p>She was a three-time high school All-American at Wyoming Seminary, then became the first player in the University of North Carolina&#8217;s field hockey program to be chosen as an NCAA All-American four times from 2009-2012 before earning a spot on the 2016 Olympic team.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m still in shock about it, that it&#8217;s a reality,&#8221; Doreen Kolojejchick said. &#8220;But I knew in my heart she could do this. She tried out for the Olympic team four years ago; she didn&#8217;t make the team. But I thought she was quite capable. Instead of giving up, she worked harder.&#8221;</p><p>Throughout their lives, that&#8217;s been the game plan for both Kelsey Kolojejchick and Kat Sharkey.</p><p>They&#8217;ve worked too long, and too hard, to pass up the opportunity to represent the United States in the Olympics and let concerns about mosquito-bred viruses such as Zika or the questionable water quality in Rio scare them away from the Olympics.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think any one of us ever thought of pulling out,&#8221; Sharkey said. &#8220;Not for a second. Getting to the Olympics for anyone on this team is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We have put in so much hard work over the past four years. My teammates are depending on me. Everyone here feels the same.&#8221;</p><p>That burning desire to be Olympians goes back a long way with Sharkey and Kolojejchick.</p><p>&#8220;Their goal was to be on the U.S. team and eventually go to the Olympics,&#8221; Wyoming Seminary coach Karen Klassner said. &#8220;I knew they were serious very early on, as ninth-graders. &#8230; They gave up quite a bit. They would miss semi-formals, proms.</p><p>&#8220;We held them to a little bit of a different standard,&#8221; Klassner continued, &#8220;just because of what their aspirations were. We were a little harder on them at times.&#8221;</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t nearly as tough as Olympic training, though.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of overwhelming, how much work the team has put into this,&#8221; Kat Sharkey said at the Olympic Field Hockey Training Center in Manheim. &#8220;We&#8217;re here six days a week. When we&#8217;re not in the weight room or at practice, and we&#8217;re out here on the field all day, we&#8217;re supposed to be resting our bodies, eating right &#8212; because nutrition is very important.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not normal 25-year-olds,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;We don&#8217;t really have lives outside of this team. I&#8217;m OK with that. It&#8217;s gotten us to this point.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">With the help of her father, U.S. field hockey team member Kat Sharkey, a Wyoming Seminary graduate, turned into one of the country&#8217;s top scorers in college. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_katsharkey02-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>With the help of her father, U.S. field hockey team member Kat Sharkey, a Wyoming Seminary graduate, turned into one of the country&#8217;s top scorers in college. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick04-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kelsey Kolojejchick, a fellow Wyoming Seminary grad, leaned on some rewarding fatherly advice after a game early in her playing career. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick04-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Kelsey Kolojejchick, a fellow Wyoming Seminary grad, leaned on some rewarding fatherly advice after a game early in her playing career. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_Local-Olympians.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_Local-Olympians.jpg</photo2><caption2></caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick01-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">U.S. field hockey player Kelsey Kolojejchick (7) gets a high-five from teammate Katie Reinprecht after scoring a goal during a Rio Send-Off Series game against India last month in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick01-2.jpg</photo3><caption3>U.S. field hockey player Kelsey Kolojejchick (7) gets a high-five from teammate Katie Reinprecht after scoring a goal during a Rio Send-Off Series game against India last month in Manheim. </caption3><photoCredit3>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_katsharkey01-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">USA Field Hockey Team member Kat Sharkey plays in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_katsharkey01-2.jpg</photo4><caption4>USA Field Hockey Team member Kat Sharkey plays in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </caption4><photoCredit4>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick02-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Kelsey Kolojejchick (7) scores a goal in the Rio Send-Off Series game against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick02-2.jpg</photo5><caption5>USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Kelsey Kolojejchick (7) scores a goal in the Rio Send-Off Series game against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </caption5><photoCredit5>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit5></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_paigeselenski02-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Paige Selenski, left, and Kat Sharkey celebrate a goal scored by teammate Kelsey Kolojejchick in the Rio Send-Off Series game against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo6>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_paigeselenski02-2.jpg</photo6><caption6>USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Paige Selenski, left, and Kat Sharkey celebrate a goal scored by teammate Kelsey Kolojejchick in the Rio Send-Off Series game against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </caption6><photoCredit6>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit6></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick03-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Kelsey Kolojejchick, right, and Paige Selenski playing in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo7>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_kelseykolojejchick03-2.jpg</photo7><caption7>USA Field Hockey Team&#8217;s Kelsey Kolojejchick, right, and Paige Selenski playing in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </caption7><photoCredit7>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit7></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_katsharkey03-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">USA Field Hockey Team member Kat Sharkey playing in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo8>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_katsharkey03-2.jpg</photo8><caption8>USA Field Hockey Team member Kat Sharkey playing in the Rio Send-Off Series against Team India on July 18 at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. </caption8><photoCredit8>Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader </photoCredit8></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Relatives helped former Sem stars Kolojejchick, Sharkey reach Rio Games</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Friendship, families push locals Sharkey, Kolojejchick to Olympic heights