Driven by an academic goal, Mechanicsburg’s Cam Standish says transferring from Ohio State to Penn State feels ‘full circle’

Cam Standish inserts a corner during a game for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Photo: Ohio State University Athletic Department

Cam Standish still remembers walking away from the cage at Chapman Field moments after her penalty stroke was saved by Palmyra goalkeeper Haleigh Lambert in the third quarter of the 2022 PIAA 2A field hockey championship.

She was frustrated, but she trusted her teammates to keep pushing in a scoreless game — the teams’ fourth meeting of the season. When regulation ended with neither side breaking through, Standish knew Mechanicsburg would have to find something more in overtime.

With 30 seconds left, Gracyn Catalano slipped a rolling shot past Lambert, delivering the first state championship in any team sport in Mechanicsburg’s school history.

“Training the whole season and everything and getting to that moment, it was just super rewarding and exciting,” Standish said. “Just so happy for each other, especially since my class was pretty big. All of us being able to work through all the years together and finally reach our end goal. Like our last game, it was super special to do that all together.”

Cam Standish’s shot is blocked by Haleigh Lambert in the 2022 PIAA Class 2A field hockey championship. Photo: FAN’s Bob Benscoter

By the time she graduated from Mechanicsburg, she was dealing with pain that worsened when she breathed heavily — a troubling issue for an athlete competing at the highest level.

Months later, Standish moved to Columbus, Ohio, as one of seven Pennsylvania recruits in Ohio State’s 2023 class.

After she made a series of late appearances in games that Ohio State held the lead, her freshman season was abruptly cut short. She went to a doctor, who discovered that she had a cyst on her spleen.

Surgery was mandatory, and the timing left her grateful for two reasons.

First, she had avoided being hit by a stick, a ball or another player in that affected area, which could have caused far more serious damage. Second, the cyst was found before she crossed the 30 percent threshold for games played, allowing her to preserve her medical redshirt option.

That left her with two years of eligibility still available.

“It was kind of crazy just how close it was,” Standish said. “Also, how dangerous it would have been if I had gotten hit there or something, and they didn't even know what was wrong. I was very lucky, and I do think it worked out really well…It's really awesome.”

After earning her finance degree from Ohio State in just three years, Standish is now heading to another Big Ten program to use those two remaining seasons.

This Fall, she’ll call State College home and suit up for the Nittany Lions — the program tied to some of her earliest memories.

Cam Standish repping Penn State as a child. Photo: Standishes

“I don't even think words can describe it,” Standish said. “Just being closer to home and easier for my family to get to all the games, and being able to support me and everyone else in the community, too. It'll be a much easier drive. Seeing very high-level games in the Big Ten will be awesome.”

After 37 games across two seasons at Ohio State, Standish said she also chose Happy Valley for academics. She earned her finance degree in three years and is now looking forward to pursuing her MBA, an option she did not have at Ohio State.

She is enrolled in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.

“Being able to get my MBA was really important, and that wasn't an option,” she said. “So I would have done something else, maybe that I was not as interested in. So I think just exploring and being able to get the degree that I really want out of school and still play at the really competitive level in the Big Ten was something I was definitely excited to look into.”

Standish will play for Hannah Prince, who was recently named Penn State’s new head field hockey coach on Jan. 13 after four seasons of leading St. Joseph’s. Before her time in Philadelphia, Prince was associate head coach at Louisville, where she recruited Standish out of high school.

“That was really cool to reconnect through the transfer portal process,” Standish said. “And now obviously her being at Penn State and the head coach, and obviously a lot has changed in the past four years, too. She had a great career at St. Joe's and a lot of success. So I'm excited to work with her. And it's kind of full circle now.”

And in many ways, the transfer — announced May 8 — brings her story back to where it began.

Standish has spent her life around Penn State.

Cam and her dad Shawn Standish at a Penn State football game. Photo: Standishes

As season-ticket holders, she and her parents, Shawn and Crystal, have been going to football games at Beaver Stadium for as long as she can remember. Both are Penn State graduates — her father earned a Forest Science degree in 1999, and her mother earned an Agricultural Business Management degree in 2000.

“Penn State has always been a huge part of my life,” Standish said. 

Now, for the next two years, the infamous Nittany Lion logo will be embroidered on a navy blue jersey, just as it had been when Standish was growing up in the heart of Nittany Lion country.

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