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Craddock finds home across the pond

By Brooke PryorSports Editor

As she collects balls with her teammates atthe conclusion of Wednesdays field hockeypractice, just days away from playing Duke her schools most historic rival and theteam to which she nearly committed juniorCharlotte Craddock looks like the picturesque

All-American.To call her a girl would be insulting she

is, after all, nearly 23 years old. But to call hera woman would be misleading. Her messyponytail and flushed face, either a result ofthe running drills she just completed on thefield or her bashfulness that comes with publicspeaking, give Craddock a carefree, giddy airto her personality.

Shes blonde-haired, blue-eyed and wouldrather warm up to country music than thetrance music crap enjoyed by her teammates.By all accounts, Craddock is as American asthey come.

But as soon as she parts her mouth toanswer a question with a playful smile dancingacross her lips, it becomes immediately obvi-ous that Craddock isnt the all-American girlshe seems to project.

Craddocks voice betrays her.Theres no trace of a Southern drawl or a

Midwestern twang. As soon as she speaks, her

Wolverhampton, England roots cant be hid-den anymore.Though her words come in spurts of three

or four before she stumbles and searches forthe next thing to say, her English accent isunmistakable.

And, delving into her field hockey resume,Craddocks English roots become even moreapparent.

Journey across the Atlantic

Four years before joining the NorthCarolina field hockey program, Craddock

became the youngest member of the UnitedKingdoms Beijing Olympic team at 17 yearsold.

In 2009, Craddock took a trip to Boston withher national team to compete in the field hock-

Junior Charlotte Craddock came to play field hockey at UNC from England

dth/katie sweeney

Charlotte Craddock was the youngest member of the 2008 British Olympic field hockey team and earned All-American honors in her first year at UNC.

ey Junior World Championship. It was therethat her love for America began to blossom.

I always wanted to come back, she said.And this is like the best thing that I can do, tolive here.

She continued to play field hockey inEngland, but by 2010, she was burned out.The constant field hockey left little time for a

balanced life, and Craddock was ready for achange.

And so, while top college field hockeycoaches were out scouting their recruits attournaments and state championships, one ofGreat Britains top young talents was writing

letters to those same coaches asking for a spoton their rosters.

She did her research and concentratedher efforts on Karen Shelton at UNC andPam Bustin at Duke. Her official visits tookher to Durham and Chapel Hill in the same

weekend, and at the end of her 48-hour visit,Craddock had made up her mind.

I met the Duke coach at the Outbackoff 15-501 and she passed (Craddock) off,Shelton said. And the story is that she saidgoodbye to all the Duke players and said,See you next year, and then she came to usand had a wonderful time and showed her

everything, and I think she just felt like thiswas a be tter mat ch.

We presumed how good she was, and thenof course her getting to campus it was like,OK, cant wait to see this kid play in person.The first day she got that ball, it was a camp, acamp game. It was amazing.

Becoming consumed in the culture

Once she arrived for summer schoolat UNC as a sophomore transfer

see CraddoCk, Page 7

Friday, September 27, 2013The Daily Tar Heel 5