Shift to ‘D’ a pleasant
surprise for NSCD’s Segal
By Bill McLean
Picture a math and science whiz being told to ace a Greek mythology test in order to get into a prestigious engineering school.
Now imagine the student’s aghast reaction at that you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me challenge.
North Shore Country Day three-sport athlete Caroline Segal can relate. She was a freshman in 2017, all geared up to play forward for the Raiders. Segal, after all, had sprinted all over pitches as a forward since the latter part of her bib days.
But NSCD coach Lizzy Giffen had another plan for Segal, nicknamed “Seegs.” Giffen deployed an uncertain Segal at right outside back and kept her there — for three seasons. This spring would have been her fourth at the position, had COVID-19 not erased all Illinois High School Association spring sports.
“I questioned my coach; forward was my spot my entire life,” Segal, now a senior, recalled. “I was not excited. But playing defense ended up being a perfect fit for me in soccer. Luckily, my coach had a good feeling about her decision.
“She saw,” Segal added, “a spark in me and thought it would be useful for our defense.”
Guess who blasted the Raiders’ very first goal in that ’17 season? None other than forward-turned-outside-back Segal, in an indoor game at Marian Central in Woodstock. The varsity rookie did not end up pacing the team in scoring, but Giffen relied on Segal to ignite NSCD’s transition with her relentlessness and offense-laden DNA.
“Caroline is an incredible athlete,” Giffen said of the Middlebury (Vt.) College-bound field hockey player, who as a senior point guard netted Independent School League (ISL) Girls Basketball Player of the Year honors in 2019-20. “Her natural ability is unmatched, and so is her speed. When you watch her play, you see her eyes and feet are always moving, making slight adjustments. She used her speed and anticipation and toughness in every game. What made her even more dangerous was how much she loved to push the ball forward and attack.”
Segal struck for 10 goals and dished five assists in her sophomore season, when NSCD advanced to the first Final Four in program history and finished as the Class A state runnerup. The goal total tied her for fourth among teammates with midfielder and classmate Allie Charnas.
The Raiders silvered again at state last spring.
“I was excited about playing soccer for one more season this spring,” said Segal, named an ISL second-teamer in soccer last spring. “I’m really, really bummed that our season was taken away from us.”
Middlebury College’s field hockey season last fall ended with an NCAA Division III championship, the Panthers’ third straight and fifth overall. Segal, a Glencoe resident, first wielded a field hockey stick in the fall of her freshman year, because the school requires participation in a fall sport.
Good thing her brother Jonathan (NSCD Class of ’15) recommended the sport.
Li’l sis went from field hockey participant to field hockey standout out in no time.
“My brother told me the field hockey program had a great team culture when he was there,” said Segal, who “fell in love with the sport” in her sophomore season (a state runnerup campaign) and earned second-team all-state accolades last fall. “He was right. My sophomore year, that team was incredible, with some amazing seniors. Those seniors taught me a whole new level of leadership.
“They also showed me how love for the team is more important than statistics or anything else in sports.”
Segal played mostly forward and midfield and battled for four Final Four field hockey squads. She developed her skills under the club coaches at Windy City Field Hockey.
“I wasn’t the most knowledgeable in field hockey, wasn’t the most skilled,” said the humble Segal, a field hockey captain in ’19. “I didn’t have the hand skills of the players who had started the sport earlier than I had. But I loved everything about the sport and kind of played all over the field.”
Segal’s speed and athleticism more than made up for her lack of game experience. Sprinkle her tenacity and scrappiness into the mix and no wonder Middlebury College’s field hockey coaches targeted and recruited her.
“It’s a warm community,” Segal, a likely political science major, said of the liberal arts campus in the Green Mountain State. “Visited it five times. I felt welcomed there each time. The people drew me to the college.”
Segal’s draw, as a teammate, from 2016 to a small chunk in 2020? Her leadership. In each of her three sports. She assessed the dynamics of the Raiders’ basketball crew in her junior season (2018-19) and figured correctly it would accept her take-charge direction. She captained two varsity hoops teams, never hesitating to huddle with a young Raider or two to offer a timely suggestion or words of encouragement.
“Communicating is important to me,” said Segal, a funny, introspective, reflective, thoughtful teen. “It’s what a leader, on any team, has to do in order to be effective. I’m kind of loud. I like to give feedback. I assumed a big leadership role my junior year in basketball, being fiery in games helped.
“I found my voice then.”
Segal was stunned when league hoops coaches named her POY near the end of the 2019-20 season.
“Surprising … that was surprising to me,” said Segal, who might look into hitting hardwood courts (for either NCAA or intramural games) at Middlebury after her first field hockey season in Vermont. “I’d missed some conference games with an injured ankle, and Latin had amazing basketball players.”
Segal produced the equivalent of a 35-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist game at a NSCD fundraiser on Jan. 18. She spearheaded the school’s annual Dunk Alzheimer’s, an all-day, all-school basketball bash featuring 10 games, a raffle and a silent auction. Jonathan Segal had started the wall-to-wall purple event in 2013 to honor his grandmother Lisa Cohen, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at age 60; the Atlanta native died recently at age 79.
The NSCD community donated a Dunk Alzheimer’s record $18,000 for Alzheimer’s awareness and research.
“My grandmother,” Caroline Segal said, “was quite an athlete, always playing tennis or running.”
Ask everyone but Caroline in the Segal family, and they’d tell you Caroline got her athleticism from Cohen. The baton is all Caroline’s now.
Watch Caroline continue to run.
Watch Caroline continue to win.
surprise for NSCD’s Segal
By Bill McLean
Picture a math and science whiz being told to ace a Greek mythology test in order to get into a prestigious engineering school.
Now imagine the student’s aghast reaction at that you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me challenge.
North Shore Country Day three-sport athlete Caroline Segal can relate. She was a freshman in 2017, all geared up to play forward for the Raiders. Segal, after all, had sprinted all over pitches as a forward since the latter part of her bib days.
But NSCD coach Lizzy Giffen had another plan for Segal, nicknamed “Seegs.” Giffen deployed an uncertain Segal at right outside back and kept her there — for three seasons. This spring would have been her fourth at the position, had COVID-19 not erased all Illinois High School Association spring sports.
“I questioned my coach; forward was my spot my entire life,” Segal, now a senior, recalled. “I was not excited. But playing defense ended up being a perfect fit for me in soccer. Luckily, my coach had a good feeling about her decision.
“She saw,” Segal added, “a spark in me and thought it would be useful for our defense.”
Guess who blasted the Raiders’ very first goal in that ’17 season? None other than forward-turned-outside-back Segal, in an indoor game at Marian Central in Woodstock. The varsity rookie did not end up pacing the team in scoring, but Giffen relied on Segal to ignite NSCD’s transition with her relentlessness and offense-laden DNA.
“Caroline is an incredible athlete,” Giffen said of the Middlebury (Vt.) College-bound field hockey player, who as a senior point guard netted Independent School League (ISL) Girls Basketball Player of the Year honors in 2019-20. “Her natural ability is unmatched, and so is her speed. When you watch her play, you see her eyes and feet are always moving, making slight adjustments. She used her speed and anticipation and toughness in every game. What made her even more dangerous was how much she loved to push the ball forward and attack.”
Segal struck for 10 goals and dished five assists in her sophomore season, when NSCD advanced to the first Final Four in program history and finished as the Class A state runnerup. The goal total tied her for fourth among teammates with midfielder and classmate Allie Charnas.
The Raiders silvered again at state last spring.
“I was excited about playing soccer for one more season this spring,” said Segal, named an ISL second-teamer in soccer last spring. “I’m really, really bummed that our season was taken away from us.”
Middlebury College’s field hockey season last fall ended with an NCAA Division III championship, the Panthers’ third straight and fifth overall. Segal, a Glencoe resident, first wielded a field hockey stick in the fall of her freshman year, because the school requires participation in a fall sport.
Good thing her brother Jonathan (NSCD Class of ’15) recommended the sport.
Li’l sis went from field hockey participant to field hockey standout out in no time.
“My brother told me the field hockey program had a great team culture when he was there,” said Segal, who “fell in love with the sport” in her sophomore season (a state runnerup campaign) and earned second-team all-state accolades last fall. “He was right. My sophomore year, that team was incredible, with some amazing seniors. Those seniors taught me a whole new level of leadership.
“They also showed me how love for the team is more important than statistics or anything else in sports.”
Segal played mostly forward and midfield and battled for four Final Four field hockey squads. She developed her skills under the club coaches at Windy City Field Hockey.
“I wasn’t the most knowledgeable in field hockey, wasn’t the most skilled,” said the humble Segal, a field hockey captain in ’19. “I didn’t have the hand skills of the players who had started the sport earlier than I had. But I loved everything about the sport and kind of played all over the field.”
Segal’s speed and athleticism more than made up for her lack of game experience. Sprinkle her tenacity and scrappiness into the mix and no wonder Middlebury College’s field hockey coaches targeted and recruited her.
“It’s a warm community,” Segal, a likely political science major, said of the liberal arts campus in the Green Mountain State. “Visited it five times. I felt welcomed there each time. The people drew me to the college.”
Segal’s draw, as a teammate, from 2016 to a small chunk in 2020? Her leadership. In each of her three sports. She assessed the dynamics of the Raiders’ basketball crew in her junior season (2018-19) and figured correctly it would accept her take-charge direction. She captained two varsity hoops teams, never hesitating to huddle with a young Raider or two to offer a timely suggestion or words of encouragement.
“Communicating is important to me,” said Segal, a funny, introspective, reflective, thoughtful teen. “It’s what a leader, on any team, has to do in order to be effective. I’m kind of loud. I like to give feedback. I assumed a big leadership role my junior year in basketball, being fiery in games helped.
“I found my voice then.”
Segal was stunned when league hoops coaches named her POY near the end of the 2019-20 season.
“Surprising … that was surprising to me,” said Segal, who might look into hitting hardwood courts (for either NCAA or intramural games) at Middlebury after her first field hockey season in Vermont. “I’d missed some conference games with an injured ankle, and Latin had amazing basketball players.”
Segal produced the equivalent of a 35-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist game at a NSCD fundraiser on Jan. 18. She spearheaded the school’s annual Dunk Alzheimer’s, an all-day, all-school basketball bash featuring 10 games, a raffle and a silent auction. Jonathan Segal had started the wall-to-wall purple event in 2013 to honor his grandmother Lisa Cohen, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at age 60; the Atlanta native died recently at age 79.
The NSCD community donated a Dunk Alzheimer’s record $18,000 for Alzheimer’s awareness and research.
“My grandmother,” Caroline Segal said, “was quite an athlete, always playing tennis or running.”
Ask everyone but Caroline in the Segal family, and they’d tell you Caroline got her athleticism from Cohen. The baton is all Caroline’s now.
Watch Caroline continue to run.
Watch Caroline continue to win.