Bree Bednarski starring at Penn State

STATE COLLEGE – It is safe to say, Bree Bednarski was one of the best female athletes to graduate from Wyoming Area. Over the past five years, Bednarski has taken those skills to the NCAA Division I field hockey college level, and she’s not done yet.

When Bednarski, the daughter of Joe and Lyn Bednarski, graduated from Wyoming Area in 2016, she walked away with slew of athletic awards as well as academic accomplishments.

Bednarski, now 22-years-old, not only excelled in field hockey, but also she was an excellent track and field star and a first team all-state centerfielder in her senior year. High school softball and track and field are both played in the spring and she successfully completed in both at the same time.

Another excellent field hockey player that played multiple sports at Wyoming Area was Serra Degnan. Degnan, a four-sport athlete at Wyoming Area, went on to excel at Syracuse University field hockey.

“When I was freshman coming onto the Wyoming Area team, Serra was my role model,” Bednarski admitted. “I want to be like her – she’s good, she’s fast, so I really looked up to her.”

Upon graduating from Wyoming Area, she shipped off to University of Michigan where she became a Big Ten Preseason Team selection and played in all 20-games for Michigan where she scored her first collegiate goal as a true freshman.

Bednarski, a Biobehavioral Healthy major, grew up very close with her family including her best friend and older sister Drew and younger brother Bret, realized she wanted to be closer to home so she decided to transfer to Penn State University were she would be able to continue to play at the highest level of Division I college field hockey.

“I was just attracted to Michigan when I went out there to visit, it felt nice,” Bednarski said, when describing why she transfer to Penn State. “I realized that my family is very important to me and they play a big role in my athletic career and I wanted to be close to them. I’m very happy here at Penn State.”

Having to sit out her redshirt freshman year as a transfer, she was able to practice with the team to keep her skill at a top level.

“It was hard, obviously, because I wanted to play and everything but it worked out,” Bednarski said. “Now I’ve been here for so long, so I kind of got that year back,”

During the 2018 campaign as a sophomore, Bednarski was able to play in 10-games playing scoring her first Nittany Lion goal against James Madison University and played in an NCAA playoff game against Harvard.

2019 was a break-out year for Bednarski playing all 20-games as a junior for the Nittany Lions scoring seven points off of three goals and one assist on the season.

The pandemic cancelled out the entire 2020 season but Bednarski said the team was able to practice keeping everyone cohesive.

The team has been able to play a full spring schedule in 2021 and Bednarski is off to a great start when she was selected Big 10 Offensive Player of the Week for the week of March 8.

She scored two goals and two assists during two-games against Maryland on her way to garnering Player of the Week honors.

Currently during the 2021 spring season, Bednarski is the top scorer for the Nittany Lions.

“I was just so happy to receive that award, I’ve never received that before and that was such a great accomplishment for myself and my team,” Bednarski said. “They helped me get there and my coaches and it inspires me to keep working and potentially get it again.”

This season Bednarski has been joined by fellow Wyoming Valley natives sophomore Aubrey Mytych (Wyoming, Pa./Wyoming Seminary) and redshirt freshman Emily Farrell (Wyoming, Pa./Dallas High School) and she said it has been great to have familiar faces on the team.

“It’s really nice, honestly,” Bednarski admits. “I knew them before even coming to Penn State and it’s nice to have time with them here and at home as well. It’s kind of having a little piece of home while I’m here.”

She’s looking forward to finishing out the last six-games of the spring season to get into the NCAA play-offs at the end of April.

“I think we have a very good chance to go pretty far in to the NCAAs,” Bednarski said. “Our team is very skilled and very fast and we’ve been really coming together very well, especially lately.”

Because of the pandemic, NCAA has granted student-athletes a chance to play an extra year to make up for the lost season in 2020. Bednarski will graduate this May, but will re-enter Penn State in the fall with a graduate certificate in order to play fall field hockey for the final time.

Bednarski said she plans on being involved in field hockey in the future. She said she would be interested in trying out for the USA Olympic team matching another one of her role models growing up, Paige Selenski.

Kingston native Selenski, a Dallas High School graduate, attended the University of Virginia on her way to playing at the 2012 Summer Olympic games.

“She did it! She was from the valley and she made it,” Bednarski said. “She was so good and another one of my inspirations.”

When her playing days conclude, Bednarski said she could see her coaching field hockey one day.

“I don’t see my being done with Penn State as the end of field hockey for me,” Bednarski said. “I think I’ll get involved in USA field hockey then.”

Oddly enough, even though field hockey has given Bednarski the most recognition in her lifetime, she still misses the old day of playing softball and track at Wyoming Area.

“I miss sports at Wyoming Area and looking back at it now, I really do miss softball and track,” Bednarski recalls. “I miss every practice and every game and every meet from high school.”