King’s Fork High School junior goalkeeper Hannah O’Neal is a special kind of trailblazer for the Lady Bulldogs field hockey team.

Coaches are always trying to find players on their teams that will be leaders, and leaders come in varying forms. Some are vocal and others lead quietly by example.

Leadership by example typically refers to someone who plays and practices the way the coach would like everyone to play and practice. But more than just that, it can also refer to someone willing to do something new for the good of the team.

Early on this season, O’Neal left the comfort zone of her position on defense, volunteered to give goalie a try and has been a standout in the cage, leading to her becoming the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

“She’s doing an outstanding job,” Lady Bulldogs coach Darcy Pinchbeck said. “She really went outside her usual field hockey experience.”

During the week of Oct. 11, she produced three impressive performances. On Oct. 14, she helped her team achieve a 1-0 overtime win against visiting conference rival Deep Creek High School, blocking the Lady Hornets from scoring on a stroke, similar to a penalty kick in soccer.

On Oct. 12, she registered another shutout as King’s Fork defeated host Churchland High School 6-0.

And then despite her team’s 7-0 loss to visiting Great Bridge High School on Oct. 15, she was still a highlight for the Lady Bulldogs, stopping another stroke and weathering 34 shots on goal.

“I thought I did pretty good,” O’Neal said of that week.

She noted the transition from field play to goalkeeper has been different.

“At first it was kind of iffy, but now I’m starting to like it,” she said. “It’s fun.”

Pinchbeck asked different players to try out at the goalie position at the beginning of the year, and O’Neal was one of those people, but the junior ended up favoring what she knew better, which was playing center back.

However, when King’s Fork got off to a rough start in the season, Pinchbeck said O’Neal approached her about moving to goalie.

“She offered to at least give it a shot,” Pinchbeck said.

On what led her to approach Pinchbeck, O’Neal said she had played goal once before, “but I was just trying it out, and I kind of liked it, but I didn’t really like it. But I figured that I could probably help in the goal.”

She tried it again in practice, finding it more to her liking that time, “so I decided to give it a try,” she said.

Brian Van der Linden has been working with O’Neal to hone her goalkeeping abilities.

“Since the beginning of the season, I’ve definitely seen her intensity grow as far as her keeper position and also her confidence,” he said. “She’s making fewer mistakes, as well.”

Adding that O’Neal has been very coachable, Van der Linden said he expects her to be King’s Fork’s go-to keeper moving forward, and Pinchbeck assured that she plans to keep O’Neal in goal beyond this season, as well.