Hannah Prince, 2010 Gorham High School grad and field hockey standout, went on to play four superb years at UMass Amherst. On leaving college behind, she accepted a job as an assistant coach at Bryant University, in Smithfield, R.I. – a post she promptly had to depart, as she was selected to the U.S. women’s national team, which, when she reported to training in Lancaster, Pa., on Monday, July 14, became her new, day-in, day-out occupation.

“It’s crazy. It’s like my full-time job,” she says of joining training camp. “In college, you have class, living in the dorms, all these other aspects. This is such a structured lifestyle. The rate that I’ll improve will be pretty steady, just because this is, really, my full-time job.”

Greg Prince, Hannah’s father, never knew her talents would take her this far.

“I had no idea. She’s been very goal-oriented, and she’s kind of incrementally set goals. She started in first grade. I think she’s always had a dream,” he said.

Greg Prince is happy to have encouraged his daughter, but, as a parent, never wanted to push her, if she didn’t want to continue.

“I basically enabled her to have the opportunity,” he said. “She was self-motivated and directed throughout her career.”

Both Greg and Hannah are quick to cite three additional figures from Hannah’s past as particularly influential: Jerry Durgin and his daughters, Jenny and Alicia. “They really fired her up,” Greg says.

Jerry Durgin was the athletic director in Gorham for many years, and Jenny taught Hannah in her local, youth field hockey program. Jenny, the younger Durgin sister, played at Springfield College, and Alicia sometimes brought Hannah with her to watch Jenny play.

“That was when I realized I wanted to play in college,” Hannah says. “I set a lot of goals for myself. Jenny had made varsity as a freshman, and went on to play in college; she was definitely a role model. Alicia opened my eyes to that.”

Hannah took up travel field hockey around fifth grade and club field hockey – as well as the U.S. Futures program – in seventh grade, and continued both through high school.

Hannah was recruited to play in college, and committed to UMass Amherst in her junior year at Gorham because “[Amherst] is a small town, but it’s also a big school,” and also because it was a top-20 program – at the time; it’s now, she reports, a top-10.

To make the national team, Hannah navigated “the pipeline” – an observation, recruitment and training process. “For college and post-college athletes who want to continue to play,” she explains, “there’s ‘high-performance’ training, they call it. It’s regional, so at the end of spring, early summer, you train with the best coaches in the region, the best players. After a month and a half of training, you get selected to go to the women’s national championship.

“I’ve gone to that the last four years,” she continues. “Last year, I made the junior national team. This year, obviously, I made the senior national team. It’s just, essentially, a tournament-style tryout, so we play five games and have one practice in seven days.” Competing among roughly 130 athletes this year, 16-18 per team, gave Hannah the chance she needed to show her latest and greatest stuff.

“She played four years of college, division one, but this is notching it up quite a bit,” Greg Prince says of his daughter. “I think because everything’s new, there’s probably some anxiety going into it, but a lot of excitement as well. She’s up for the challenge, I believe.”

On her way to training camp, on the Saturday before it began, however, Prince seemed to have reached a reasonably tranquil headspace. “Honestly, my nerves, at this point, aren’t bad. I’ve just been focused on getting organized and getting moving. Keeping up with my workouts and making sure that when I start practice, I’m mentally and physically as prepared as I can be.

“It’s kind of like being a freshman all over again. I have so much to learn,” she added. “It’s definitely exciting. It wasn’t expected for me, necessarily. I’m going to be playing with the girls I got to watch play in the World Cup a couple months ago. Some of them are two-time Olympians. It’s a little surreal.”

Thirty women made the national team, but only 16-18 will travel, representing the U.S. on the international stage. Prince doesn’t know if she’ll be one of those lucky athletes, of course, but until she finds out, she’s concentrating on having fun. “I don’t see the point in getting too nervous. It’ll be great just to do what I love. I’ll work hard,” she said.

Prince already has a macro schedule in-hand, so she’s aware of roughly how hard she’ll be working – what workouts happen on what days, what days she’ll have off, etc.

“It’s set up pretty much like any preseason. We have two sessions Monday, Tuesday is a lift, then a run, then a practice – it’s structured sort of like a D1 sport. We get our meals, they provide a nutritionist, they do personal fitness plans, personal hockey plans. We have so many more resources. An endless amount of stuff like that,” she said.

If she doesn’t make the first touring group? The team reevaluates frequently, so she’ll have additional opportunities. “As long as I keep growing, hopefully I’ll make the cut. There’s a lot of veterans on the team, so I’m just focused on getting better,” she said.

The touring group participates in numerous international competitions, including the World Cup, a World League, a Pan-Am games, and multiple Olympic qualifiers. And naturally, the Olympics are Prince’s and her training-mates’ ultimate aspiration.

“The main goal is to win gold at the Olympics; that’s the top of the top. Everything we do is to be the best we can be in two summers for Rio,” she said.

Brazil 2016 would undoubtedly be a brain-bending experience. But whether Prince finds herself there or not, she’s undoubtedly finding herself now, in Pennsylvania, and it’s certainly blowing her mind.

Hannah Prince fires the ball along the ground in her time at UMass Amherst.Prince, a defender, competes for a ball with an opposition player in a college game.