Perkiomen Valley’s Giese signs with Indiana

Over the past four years, her business has been scoring goals and facilitating the offense.

Last week, Perkiomen Valley senior Kelsey Giese, the daughter of Robin and Mario Giese, signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Division I Indiana University in the fall.

“Indiana seemed like a home away from home for me,” said Giese. “I was looking for a big school, so Indiana really stuck out. It was the total package — the campus is beautiful and the people were friendly when I visited. It was the perfect fit.”

Giese, who will pursue a degree in marketing and business, also considered Northwestern, Louisville, Ohio State and the University of New Hampshire. In the end, it was her communication with Indiana coach Amanda Janney that gave Indiana the edge.

“I’ve been talking with AJ (Janney), and she told me I’d have a chance to get on the field right away,” Giese said. “That was one of things I was looking for in a school. I wanted a chance to make an immediate impact with the team.”

Moving from the forward position at Perkiomen Valley, Giese will transition to play defense while with the Hoosiers.

“I’ll have to adjust into a more defensive mindset,” she said, “but that’s just another challenge I’m looking forward to.”Throughout her time at PV, Giese took a step forward each season.

She was named to the Mercury All-Area first team as a junior, was second team as a sophomore and honorable mention during her freshman season.

This past summer, Giese was selected to compete in her third AAU Junior Olympics tournament and was also named to the Pennsylvania High School Field Hockey Coaches Association (PAHSFHCA) All-State First Team.

She has been selected to the Future Elites team three times and the Junior National Camp twice.

During her junior season, she scored a team-high 15 goals as the Vikings completed an undefeated run through the PAC-10 en route to the conference title.

In her senior season, Giese led the PAC-10 with 28 goals scored, including a hat trick in the Vikings’ 5-2 win over Phoenixville in the PAC-10 semifinals.

Of all of her accomplishments on the field, Giese says there was nothing better than holding the championship plaque to cap her junior season.

“That was probably the best moment of my career,” she said. “That feeling of going undefeated and winning PAC-10s, there wasn’t a better way we could have ended that season. It’s one of those moments I’ll always remember.”

This past season, Giese led the charge in her team’s return to the PAC-10 final where the Vikings ended up losing to Owen J. Roberts.

Despite their finish, it was the ride getting to that point that she and her teammates will cherish.

“We were losing the main core of our starters going into (this past season),” said Giese. “So we really didn’t know what to expect.”

Yet as the season progressed, so did the team.

“From preseason to our final game, we made so many improvements along the way. All of the girls can say that we played our hardest every single game. We proved what we could do, not just to the league, but also to ourselves.”