Play for Runway: Pentucket Field Hockey
October 23
W. Newbury, MA
Pentucket Field Hockey is Playing for Runway!
On Friday, October 23, Pentucket Field Hockey will Play for Runway for the fourth year — continuing a tradition that began with one family’s firsthand experience with breast cancer and has grown into something this team has made its own.
The connection began through Newburyport Field Hockey coach Shannon Haley and her mom, Pentucket’s legendary longtime field hockey coach, Ruth Beaton. Ruth led the Pentucket program for more than three decades and was named United States Field Hockey Coach of the Year before stepping down following the 2024 season.
For Shannon and Ruth, the impact of breast cancer was deeply personal. They watched their cousin, Amy Burke, face a breast cancer diagnosis and saw firsthand how her local communities rallied around Amy and her family. Amy would later become one of the four inaugural members of Runway for Recovery’s Boston Marathon team, turning the support she experienced into an opportunity to help other families impacted by breast cancer.
That experience helped inspire Pentucket’s Play for Runway tradition, and four years later, it continues.
Under head coach Rachel Thornton, the Pentucket Field Hockey team has chosen to carry it forward — using a sport and community they love to help families facing metastatic or terminal breast cancer, or grieving the loss of a parent to the disease.
Together, Pentucket Field Hockey has already raised $4,559.11 for Runway for Recovery.
On October 23, the team will once again take the field in honor of the people in their own lives who have been impacted by breast cancer, while raising funds to provide direct financial assistance, resources, and connection to Runway families.
Friday, October 23
Pentucket Field Hockey
Fourth Annual Play for Runway
$4,559.11 raised to date
We are so impressed by this team’s commitment to carrying the tradition forward under Coach Rachel Thornton, and so grateful to Shannon, Ruth, Amy, and the entire Pentucket community. What began with one family’s experience has become four years of young athletes choosing to show up for other families — exactly what Play for Runway is all about.