Reese D’Ariano embraces role as youngest player on USA field hockey’s World Cup roster

Reese D’Ariano’s field hockey journey began at the swimming pool.

The youngest of three children, Reese was always put into the same sports as her two older brothers. One day, when accompanying her mother, Jodie, and her middle brother Landon, to his swim practice, the mother of one of Reese’s friends mentioned a field hockey clinic being held at a nearby high school.

Rather than staying to watch her brother swim, eight-year-old Reese picked up a field hockey stick.

The following nine years of Reese’s career led her to representing the United States as a member of the women’s national team at the indoor and outdoor Pan American Cups, Indoor World Cups, Women’s junior World Cup, and the U18 and U16 National Teams for Four Nations Tournaments.

Now, at 17 years old, the West Chester native is playing on her biggest stage yet. Reese will compete at the FIH Hockey World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands from Aug. 14-30. Team USA will play its first game on Aug. 15 against Argentina.

Reese is the youngest player to make the U.S. women’s national team. But before any accolades or national team appearances, her journey continued at the pool.

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While her brother was practicing, Reese and her mother would go to the multipurpose fields nearby to work on drills. Coming straight from school, she would carry her stick and a bag of balls with her, watching videos and analyzing the game.

“Obviously, the progression was slow if you saw it day to day,” Reese said. “But as the weeks and months went on, it was a pretty drastic change in how I progressed.”

Her progression eventually landed her a spot on the national team.

The forward/midfielder noted that while it’s cool to acknowledge her role as the youngest player and the only high school student on the team in this tournament, she doesn’t think about it too much.

“People have graduated from college, and I walked in, [a few] weeks ago, saying ‘I just got my license, guys, stay off the roads,’” Reese said. “Everything’s just really lighthearted about it because I’m just as an equal member of the team as anybody else.”

Playing alongside older teammates isn’t new for Reese, whose club career with the WC Eagles saw her playing with older age groups from the time she was 10. As one of the top field hockey clubs in the nation, the environment challenged her, Jodie said.

“I’m not surprised by anything that she’s achieved,” Jodie said. “I always say she’s built differently.”

An athlete herself, Jodie D’Ariano ran track at Stanford and her husband, Frank, played soccer at The College of New Jersey. Reese’s brother, Ryan, golfed at West Chester University and Landon swims at North Carolina State. Jodie said she has tried to match her kids’ efforts by giving them the best opportunities she could within their respective sports.

Reese’s first big opportunity in field hockey came in 2022, when she was put on the U16 team at age 12 for a series against Canada in Vancouver. A year later, in 2023, she was 13 playing at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in South America, where she earned the Junior Player of the Tournament Award.

Currently enrolled at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a cyberschool, Reese said she’s sacrificed the “normal” high school experience in favor of field hockey.

Making the switch to cyberschool around eighth grade has given Reese the flexibility to train in the Netherlands in the fall. In turn, Jodie said field hockey has taken her and her family to incredible places, including Belgium in August, when she and her husband will travel to watch Reese play in the World Cup.

“We try to get to everything that she’s in,” Jodie said. “It’s a small window of time that you get to see kids compete, so obviously, I want to take advantage of it.”

With Team USA, Reese has played in 17 international matches as a member of the senior national team. She has won two gold medals, one at the 2025 Rohrmax Cup in Vienna, Austria, where she was the top goal scorer of the tournament, and another at the 2024 Indoor Pan American Cup in Calgary, Canada, where she was awarded the most valuable player of the tournament and top goal scorer.

She earned two silver medals at the 2026 Junior Pan American Cup in Santiago, Chile, and the 2025 Pan American Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay. Her one bronze medal comes from the 2026 FIH Hockey Nations Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.

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But playing in a senior World Cup is a big step up, says Team USA head coach David Passmore.

“The whole size and scale of the event is enormous,” Passmore said. “But I think the other thing is that we also need to not overexpect too much from her too soon. I don’t want to place any additional pressure than her own standards, [which] bring enough pressure on herself.”

This year marks the first time since 2018 that the U.S. women’s national team qualified for the World Cup. Only two players on the roster have prior experience in the tournament. However, others have competed on the Olympic stage. Regardless of their previous background, Passmore expects each of the players to come away with a new experience.

“When you come away from something, a big event like that, you understand the whole mental side of the game, the preparation, the need to also be relaxed, because being relaxed helps you make better decisions,” Passmore said. “[Reese] will bring that towards the rest of her career and hopefully it will help her in her career with the USA national team as well.”

As one of the top recruits for the class of 2027, Reese is committed to play for Chadds Ford native Erin Matson, head coach of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

But first, she’s focused on competing in the World Cup, and then, finishing high school.

“I just look at it as just another tournament, another opportunity to show what I’ve been working for, and what the team’s been working for,” Reese said. “Stepping on the field for the World Cup is a big deal, but I think having the experience that I have, I’m going to be much more calm and prepared for the moment.”