Mullery Maintains Excellence

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

Leah Mullery showed plenty of versatility during her first collegiate season with Lehigh field hockey. It felt like anytime head coach Caitlin Dallmeyer needed to fill a hole at any position, Mullery would step into that role and thrive.

This summer, Mullery is helping fill holes somewhere else… on the Pennsylvania roads.

The rising sophomore is in the midst of an internship with PennDOT at the District Four office in Lackawana County (northeast part of the state).

"PennDOT is divided into three different divisions – construction, design and maintenance. I'm working in the maintenance division," said Mullery.

Specifically, Mullery is an ESTI, an Engineering, Scientific and Technical Intern.

"We work with managing basins, swales and all the things you see on the sides of roads that help maintain storm water when it rains," she said. "I also work a lot with the Pollutant Reduction Plan. Every district has a certain number of credits they need to get in reducing sediment and pollution. I have to find streams that we can restore, and places where we can plant trees."
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Even though her original intent in applying for the position wasn't because of her biology major, Mullery has found plenty of biology incorporated in her work.

"There's a lot of hydrology, so it does have to do with bio," she said. "But at the same time, it's so different compared to what I've normally done. I'm just trying new things."

Mullery being open to new things has led her to being in the "real world" as just a rising sophomore.

It should only help her in the long run.

"It is so rare that we see students securing great internships their first year in college," said Lehigh head coach Caitlin Dallmeyer. "The emphasis is typically placed on interning during junior and senior years, so it was very surprising to see Leah jump right into navigating her future job path. She is open-minded about the different paths she may take with her biology degree, and I am happy to see that she is using her summer to try out some areas of interest in order to begin narrowing her scope. Leah is a very disciplined and focused student-athlete, and you can see that in her approach to both field hockey and her career."

Mullery's typical days have included anything from office work to driving an hour or longer to various locations.

"Maintenance sets up permits for projects, so one day, we went to a place where this road collapsed," she said. "Later in the day, we came down to Luzerne County and checked out some streams to see if they had the ability to be restored. We have to send them to the Department of Environmental Protection, who needs to approve a stream being fixed before anything can be done."

That's just one example of the complexity of managing roadways.

"I feel like every time I saw a bad road, I would ask myself, 'why don't they just fix it?'" she said. "But there's so much that goes into it. We (maintenance) work with all the different divisions. I have gotten to see a lot of construction and design, too, because maintenance has to talk to them about what they're going to build and what materials they need for the job."

While materials are needed for a construction job, the same is true on the field. A number of ingredients are needed for the job of developing a winning program, both with tangibles (winning games) and intangibles (developing today's scholar-athletes and tomorrow's leaders).

Everything doesn't always run smoothly. That's where maintenance enters the picture. Throughout a long season, actions need to be taken and holes need to be filled, with a focus on details, details and more details.

"On the roads, you have to talk to design, talk to construction, set up a permit and wait for the materials to come in," said Mullery. "Then, you can finally start building the road.

"It's like our team. We're not going to have progress immediately, but if we keep working and doing the little things, it will add up in the end and we'll be successful.

"It's a process."

Leah is at the beginning stages of her personal four-year process, which includes helping the Lehigh field hockey program along its road… rebuilding.

So far, so good.

"Last year was honestly one of the best years of my life," said Mullery. "Even from last fall into the end of the spring, we have grown so much as a team, physically and mentally. I feel like a lot of teams forget the mental piece, but Coach Dallmeyer really focused on maintaining mental health in the spring with us. We also became physically stronger too, which was awesome."

Last season saw Mullery flexed her muscles early, scoring three goals over the first four games and earning Patriot League Rookie of the Week following a two-goal effort at Villanova. Despite the offensive success, she would later anchor the defense for a long period of time and do it with a team-first attitude, a mentality important not only on the field, but also in life.
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"At my internship, all the divisions have to work together," said Mullery. "Meanwhile, everyone on our team has individual roles, but we all need to work together to form our best self. I am willing to do whatever helps our team be its best self."

Mullery is developing into the best version of herself by taking advantage of any opportunity for growth, and going into every experience – like this summer – with an open mind.

"The first couple days, I feel like I learned so much about basins, storm water and everything like that," she said, when asked to reflect on her internship. "I have also always loved the environment and now that I'm working here, I try to reduce pollution and make the environment a better place on a daily basis. My passion for helping the earth has only grown."

Mullery's passion wouldn't have grown without putting herself in an uncomfortable, and foreign, situation.

"Being uncomfortable has definitely shown me that you have to take chances," she said. "I was really nervous on the first day of this internship. I had previous experience in the medical field, but this was something totally different.

"On the playing field, you're going to be put in uncomfortable situations every day, whether it's practice or a game. You're never going to be able to completely know what will happen in every situation."

Leah's openness to change, and ability to adjust to situations, was something Dallmeyer saw during the recruitment process.

"We look for athletes with a team-first mentality, those who are willing to be true selfless servants to our team," said Dallmeyer. "We saw this in Leah throughout our years of watching her play. We had imagined her as an attacker for our program and she came in and executed well in that position. Unfortunately, after some injuries, we were in need of a left back and struggled to find a solution. It pained us to take her off the attack line, but we knew she was capable of helping our defense.

"Fortunately for us, she proved to be the player, and person, we thought we were getting when we asked her to come to Lehigh," Dallmeyer continued. "Without one complaint or ounce of uncertainty, she accepted her new role and owned it.

"Leah is a great example of not only doing what's best for the team, but also being her best for the team."

Thanks to people like Mullery bringing their best every single day, the Lehigh field hockey program is well on its way to great things.

"I believe our program is changing at a good speed," she said.

Much like a car driving down one of Mullery's newly-maintained highways.

DYK? Today, Leah Mullery scored multiple goals for the second time this season. That upped Lehigh's goal total to 18 on the season, already three more than the Mountain Hawks scored all last year. #Progress #LittleVictoriesLeadToBigWins pic.twitter.com/ZyZsw4pUSZ
— Lehigh Field Hockey (@LehighFH) October 14, 2018

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