People walk up and ask "what number is Ellis?" They're always surprised when they spot a 5-foot-2 player holding a stick half her size.
Then Margaret Ellis hits the ball.
It's a sound heard hundreds of times on Blackstock West Field. When the senior from St. Louis, Mo., takes a shot, the sound even echoes across Boswell Field.
Last Saturday was the climax of Ellis' collegiate field hockey career. She scored her 72nd goal at DePauw, breaking a 25-year-old record held by Colleen Konicek, '88. Two weeks ago, she broke Konicek's all-time points record as well.
She usually isn't one to celebrate on the field, but when Ellis broke the points record, it was meaningful because of the journey she went through to get there.
Ellis transferred to DePauw after her freshman year at Div. I University of Richmond, just days before the Tigers began preseason practice. Her body could no longer handle a Div. I athletics workload, even though her mind was committed. She was diagnosed in the spring of 2010 with plantar fasciitis, a condition that commonly affects middle-aged people, but sometimes can affect athletes who are on their feet a lot.
But for Ellis, who is driven by a passion and intensity for athletic competition, sitting out wasn't an option. Field hockey was not her first sport, but it is the sport that has now defined her DePauw athletic career.
Just trying something new
Before entering high school, Ellis was focused on playing soccer. Since the age of four, Ellis idolized soccer star Mia Hamm, and said she always had a penchant for the back of the net.
But her older sister, Meredith Ellis '09, played field hockey for DePauw. So when Margaret entered the Whitfield School in St. Louis, she decided to go out for field hockey as a way to get better acquainted.
"I was like Bambi on ice," Ellis said of when she first starting playing. "I wanted to use both sides of the stick, and I thought you could kick the ball."
Her junior varsity team was made up largely of freshmen. She was elected captain and played at the middle midfield position, which she held through her senior year. Ellis described herself as a "maniac" during games.
After her first season, she started playing on a club field hockey team following her spring soccer season. During the summer before her junior year, her club coach told her to start thinking about playing field hockey in college.
Ellis made a highlight video and sent it to many Div. III Midwest schools, including DePauw. She then visited a few colleges, including Rhodes College. Before visiting Rhodes, Ellis was unsure about whether or not she would pursue either soccer or field hockey collegiately.
Her visit with Rhodes head coach Jane Wells changed everything.
"She told me 'I don't think you're at the level for college field hockey,'" Ellis recalled. "Then she made a comment that I should go play club. ... It made me so mad. I remember walking off, and I'm sure I had steam coming out of my ears."
That anger translated into a new commitment to improve her field hockey skills. Ellis started playing indoor field hockey, which is played with five people on a basketball court.
"It is so fast and the ball can't come off the ground," she said. "You truly have to have skill. It teaches you to be very disciplined. You can't 'kind of' do a move. You have to commit to it and have very good footwork."
Ellis was ready to lead her school field hockey team, a group of 12 seniors, in her senior year. She also started making a list of schools to apply to and decided to try for Richmond.
"I went on an official visit to Richmond. ... I absolutely fell in love with it and realized that this is what I want to do," Ellis said.
Spiders head coach Gina Lucido couldn't guarantee Ellis a spot on the team, and Ellis waited through October of her senior year of high schoo for word on her status. Finally, during biology class near the end of October, she got the news she was waiting for: she had a spot if she wanted it.
"I got up so fast and sprinted out of the room," Ellis said. "The rest of the day, I paid no attention in class, and I was so out of it in practice. I was just so happy."
Two weeks later, Ellis called Lucido to accept the offer.
The Richmond experience
Upon arrival, Ellis was moved from the midfield position to a forward spot. Immediately, she was intimidated by the 5'7" and 5'8" seniors who possessed skills beyond Ellis' ability.
"I remember we worked on reverse chips, I looked at the coach and said I couldn't do it," she said. "The whole season, coach (Ryan Elliott) called me 'little one,' and he took me under his wing."
In the team's first game against American University, Ellis was terrified of playing. Down 2-0, Lucido called on her to warm up. She ended up scoring the Spiders' only goal of the game off of a rebound.
"When I was in that game, I realized I was okay," Ellis said. "But after the first game, I didn't get a lot of playing time, and I was so confused. I was just so inexperienced compared to other girls."
She was also afraid of making mistakes on the field. To improve her abilities, she worked with Elliott, a second-year assistant from Northern Ireland, in the afternoon before every practice.
Coming back after winter break, she practiced every day for a month at 7 a.m. It was all running, and one day she realized her feet were sore.
"I'd never heard of plantar fasciitis," Ellis said. "Then it got to a point where I would wake up in the morning and fall."
She and her coaches decided it was best for her to just rest, but not running began to wear on Ellis psychologically.
"It turned into a mental thing: 'Why is this happening to me? I'm so young, why now? I have so much going for me now,' " she said.
That season she appeared in 16 games, scored two goals and tallied one assist, and Richmond won the Atlantic 10 Championship.
During the summer, she didn't experience the pain at all and went back for her sophomore season.
"I went maybe two more days of preseason and my feet were dying," Ellis said. "My parents came to help me move in, and I started crying. I looked at them and said 'take me home.'"
to the Midwest - DePauw.
Ellis called the ride home the longest 12-hour drive of her life.
She declared her decision not to return to Richmond to Lucido, and then told the team.
"It was so hard to convey how it really was," she said.
On the way home, her father called DePauw's Admissions Office and found out she could attend the university right away because she had been accepted as a high school senior. DePauw head coach Gina Wills was excited about the news that Ellis was coming to DePauw because she had tried to recruit her out of high school.
For Ellis, she was still unsure about the decision, but did the only thing she knew how to do, which was to push herself in the Tigers' first preseason practice.
Ellis' arrival brought a new energy and dedication level that was contagious. On the field, Ellis' skills that she had learned in Richmond were paying large dividends for DePauw.
She scored 24 goals her first season, at one point tallying a goal in 13-straight games. The Tigers finished 13-7 her sophomore season. Ellis started every game, and with Wills' help, she learned to cope with plantar fasciitis.
"She'd be in every drill and every practice," Wills said. "She never complains about [the pain], and never asks not to practice."
In Ellis' junior year, she and junior teammate Bridgette Shamleffer lead DePauw to a 16-3 overall record including a 12-1 record in the team's first season in the NCAC. Ellis again scored 24 goals and Shamleffer added 10.
The Ellis effect
Ellis is not the prime reason why DePauw's field hockey program won its 18th game Thursday afternoon - a university record - and is looking for its first NCAA Div. III tournament appearance in more than a decade. But she sure is a large part.
When sophomore Paige Henry was conducting her college search as a junior in high school, she visited Richmond and met Ellis.
Henry decided the Div. I commitment level just wasn't right for her. When she visited DePauw during her senior year, she saw Ellis again. After that, she knew the Tigers' team had potential.
Same with fellow sophomore Maggie Campbell.
The two sophomore forwards play with Ellis up top and look to emulate much of what they see from her on a day-to-day basis.
"Her shot variety is really impressive," said Henry, who has nine goals and eight assists this season. "I'm always watching her, trying to learn, and so is everyone else."
Campbell, who is DePauw's assist leader with nine this season, said Ellis' unrelenting defense makes her the player she is.
"Something Margaret has, besides her skill, is her attitude," Campbell said. "That's something people try to pick up and imitate, and that's something that's going to be harder to replace than her skill."
That attitude comes from Ellis' refusal to quit. She said her plantar fasciitis affects her every day and has progressed from just her right foot two years ago, to both feet now.
"I take Aleve and Advil like it's candy," Ellis said. "It sucks, but I'm sure other people would have called it quits."
She hasn't, and now holds DePauw's all-time scoring record with 74 goals, and points record with 168, after just three years.
"I may have the goals, but there are 10 other people who are right there that should get just as much credit," Ellis said.
Wills said there is a culture on the team that recognizes now how to achieve success.
"Margaret is a big part of it," Wills said. "Her work ethic, coming early and staying after, becomes the norm. Margaret doesn't like to get beat. She never quits on the ball."
The same day Ellis broke the points record, she said her sister texted her after the game and said she was proud of her for breaking the mark. At that point, Ellis said, she finally felt like she was no longer a Spider, but a Tiger.
"I wanted to leave a mark," Ellis said. "When I play field hockey - that's my thing."