For the previous four years, Emma Miller had to wear blue while playing field hockey at the University of Delaware.

“I am not a blue fan,” said the former Fightin’ Blue Hens midfielder.

So, she is more than thrilled to be back in the green of her alma mater, Donegal, as its field hockey coach.

“It’s wonderful,” Miller said at LNP | LancasterOnline’s recent media day for field hockey at Lancaster’s Penn Medicine Park. “It is truly fulfilling. I have enjoyed just being a part of it, getting to wear green again, which is so fun for me. I missed it.”

Miller’s hire is just part of a new beginning for the Indians, who have no returning Lancaster-Lebanon League section all-stars and will see a bunch of new opponents this season in Section 2 as the league shifts from four divisions to three.

Last season, Donegal went 5-5 in Section 3, 9-9 overall.

“I think it’s really good to have a fresh start from time to time,” senior forward/midfielder Lydia Berube said. “It’s really nice to start over, and I’m really excited for the season.”

As is Miller, who graduated from Delaware with a degree in early childhood education in the spring, got a job as a second-grade teacher at Donegal, then made the decision “give back to the program” and coach field hockey.

Now her aim is to get the Indians back to the winning ways to which she became so accustomed while she and her older sisters, Lydia (Class of 2020) and Grace (Class of 2018), played for the Indians.

When Miller — a two-time first-team section all-star and an L-L League all-star as a senior — was a freshman in 2018, Donegal won the PIAA and District 3 titles in Class 2A, part on an incredible run.

From 2002 through 2021, Miller’s senior season, the Indians won six district championships, including five in a row from 2014-18, and two state titles (2016). During that stretch, Donegal only missed the district playoffs once, during the pandemic-altered 2020 season, when the brackets were cut to eight teams.

The Indians haven’t been back since.

“We are growing, and I think that’s the best way (to put it),” said Miller, who will have sister Lydia as an assistant coach this season. “I wouldn’t even call it rebuilding because Donegal has always had such a strong foundation of really good coaches and really good people that have invested in the program.”

The players said they like what they’ve seen and heard so far from Miller. The focus in the preseason has been on passing and shooting drills, they said.

“We also go over everything at the end of practice and just talk about like what we did wrong and what we did right,” junior forward Izabella O’Hara said, “and then we fix it.”

There’s also a level of excitement over playing different, more-challenging opponents this season.

“I think it is definitely a little intimidating,” junior forward/midfielder Isabella Cooke said, “but I think we still are going to be able to work our best and definitely win games.”

Miller said she wants this year’s team to be better than last year’s, then next year’s to be better than this year’s. It’s all part of the growing process.

Donegal vs Palmyra-PIAA 2A Field Hockey
Donegal's Emma Miller (7) takes a shot against Palmyra during first half action of the PIAA 2A Field Hockey Championships at Whitehall High School in Allentown Saturday Nov. 17, 2018.

CHRIS KNIGHT
“I think the biggest thing that I ask for them every day is really to just show up and give me their best, and I harp on that,” Miller said. “But for us, what success looks like is just being competitive. When you’re competitive, you really don’t know what the outcome could be, right?

“I think the biggest thing is that we need to take one day at a time. We can’t think about the overall. We need to focus on one game at a time, be really competitive. Practices are just as intentional as our games. Just be competitors in the L-L League, and see what happens. We’ll go give them our best, and hopefully we’ll ruffle some feathers and shake things up a little bit.”

And maybe take steps toward eventually wearing another color: gold.