University of Maryland junior defender and Liberty High School graduate Rayne Wright was taught a lot of her skills and talents as a young student-athlete by older players before her time.

Now being looked up to by younger, aspiring players, she wanted to use her platform to give back and help to continue to grow the sport of field hockey to the area that she grew up in.

Wright recently teamed up with Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Orthopedic Institute’s sports medicine team to host a free girls’ field hockey clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 28, at the Lou Ramos Center in east Allentown. The event was for girls in grades 5-8.

“It was a nice event and great to be able to give back to the community,” said Wright. “We want to continue to grow the sport and help teach younger players all about it and help them get better. This is a great way of doing that with some very talented and successful college athletes that they look up to teaching them about the game.”

Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute is the region’s leader in joint, spine and orthopedic care. The institute includes nearly 150 providers from Scranton to the Lehigh Valley with a focus on all aspects of orthopedic care, including joint health, sports medicine, foot and ankle, hand and wrist, spine, orthopedic trauma and pediatric orthopedics. Other areas of focus include chiropractic care, podiatry, pain management, physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Wright, who has started every game the last two seasons for the Division I Terrapins, was joined by three University of North Carolina Tar Heels and three-time national champions, Erin Matson, Meredith Sholder and Madison Orobono, along with Brie Barraco, Penn State University and Parkland High School graduate. Sholder and Orobono are Emmaus High School graduates.

The field hockey players were selected to be Lehigh Valley Health Network Impact Athletes. The goal of the Impact Athlete program is to provide strong and inspirational role models who help young athletes pursue their goals. The program is only six months old and it is the first field hockey event run by LVHN.

“It’s an NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) initiative, so collegiate athletes are our number one directive,” said Steve Hultgren, director of sport performance for the program and Easton Area High School graduate. “These younger kids look up to collegiate athletes like the ones we have here today and their voices will be listened to when teaching the game. We want to help collegiate athletes with NIL in all sports, all across our community. It’s awesome for these kids to be able to give back.”

There were just about 150 5th-8th graders that registered for the clinic.

Wright was a First Team All-State player at Liberty and was the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference MVP in 2019.