Coventry’s Harrington finds perfect match in Siena

May 20—When Lindsey Harrington signed her letter of intent to play Division I soccer at Siena College on Nov. 10, she was convinced that it was a perfect match.

But that wasn’t always the case for the Coventry High senior.

“Actually at the beginning, they didn’t,” Harrington said when asked if the school had always stuck out to her. “One of my coaches at my club soccer team, he told me that ‘This school is, in my opinion, a good fit for you. Maybe you should reach out to the coach.’ They have a good program. I was like, OK, why not, because I was casting my net wide and talking to a bunch of people.”

It only took one visit to the Loudonville, New York campus to change her mind.

“When I went up into the girls dorm to talk to (the team) for the first time, it was only supposed to be for like 10 minutes. I talked to them for an hour and a half,” Harrington said. “They were just so kind and welcoming. I was like ‘Oh my God, this is awesome.’ I would walk into a building and someone would hold the door for me and they didn’t even know me and they’d ask, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ I was like ‘Oh my gosh.’ Every single time I was there, the were signs were just like this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Harrington, a 5-foot-6 center back, spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Oakwood Soccer Club in Glastonbury.

Before the 2021 high school season, Oakwood made players choose between playing there or for its high school team. But that year, Oakwood began allowing its players to play for both.

Harrington helped the 20th-seeded Patriots reach the quarterfinals of the 2021 Class S state tournament.

“It was a good experience,” she said. “I got to play with all the girls that I grew up playing with. I had a ton of fun with them.”

But last fall, Harrington elected to play volleyball.

“My older sister played and I would play with her a little bit,” she said. “She was like ‘Oh, I think you’d be good at it.’ She kind of taught me how to do some stuff. Then Coach (Ryan) Giberson was like ‘Hey Linds, I think you should play on the volleyball team.’ I said ‘Maybe, maybe.’ But I ended up trying out and I just had a ton of fun playing it.”

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In addition to volleyball, Harrington has played softball at Coventry for three years after missing 2020 due to the pandemic.

“She’s a great athlete. I mean she can go anywhere and play softball,” Patriots softball coach Jeff LaHouse said. “Soccer is her passion. But even in practices, something silly that we do is a lot of tennis ball drills with no glove. She has the softest hands on the team. She’s just athletic.”

Harrington believes her other sports, particularly ones that involve different skill sets, have only helped her development as a soccer player.

“I think the different movements definitely keep me stronger,” she said. “I’ve only had one injury in my life, so I think that aspect helps a lot. Also, keeping my mind sharp. Like softball is just a totally different mental game. I think it definitely helps a lot in soccer.”

The past two years, Harrington has continued to play at Oakwood. In July, she helped lead the club’s U-17 Girls Academy team to the Girls Academy League national championship.

“It was amazing,” Harrington said. “We have an awesome team. A lot of other teams that we were playing against have a bunch of individual players. But we were all playing as a team well. I mean we have a couple standouts, but other teams would have like five national team players. We don’t have that. We just had a collective team that was determined to win. We kept pushing forward and winning. It was awesome.”

While playing for Coventry High was a great experience, it was Harrington’s time at Oakwood that took her career to the next level.

“I think it definitely helped a lot,” she said. “Not only with my recruiting process but with everyone’s. The exposure that we got as we kept winning and getting better. We would go to showcases and the sidelines were lined with coaches. So a lot of people got exposure from our success.”

One of those coaches was the Saints’ Steve Karbowski.

In a release announcing Siena’s Class of 2027 recruiting class, Karbowski described Harrington as “a very composed and intelligent center back.”

“She reads the game very well and is calm and confident on the ball in possession,” Karbowski added.

Harrington described how her recruitment process with the Saints began.

“I started e-mailing the coach and he said that he watched my highlight video and he wanted to see more,” she said. “The first conversation we had was an awesome conversation. He came to watch me play super quick after that. He was super enthusiastic about how much he wanted me to be there. That just spoke volumes to me.”

Harrington graduates from Coventry High June 10. She’ll arrive at Siena Aug. 4 as the team begins its preseason. The Saints finished 2-11-5 in 2022, including 1-6-3 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play.

She plans to major in health sciences with hopes of becoming a nurse or a physician assistant, but said she has interest in elementary education and speech pathology as well.

While she figures out those plans, Harrington already knows one thing,

“I expect to be working hard,” she said with a chuckle. “I expect having to earn my spot and climb up the ranks as a freshman. But I’m just super excited for it.”

For coverage of UConn football and men’s basketball as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.