Volunteer assistant coach Brianna Robbins Driscoll joined the North Reading field hockey team just a couple of weeks before the season officially started, but she has fully invested in the Hornets.

State title aspirations amid an 8-1-1 start has Brianna focused on bringing drills, wisdom and positive energy. She monitors how other teams are doing on her down time. She keeps her own stats on game days, chirping words of encouragement and instruction while pacing up and down the sidelines. And with her North Reading field hockey hat always on her head, she’s on the sidelines for all those game days.

Well, except one.

Underneath the hat is a long scar along Brianna’s skull; the result of two surgeries to resolve a random, inexplicable brain aneurysm she suffered 11 months ago. Volunteer coaching the Hornets is a part of her recovery.

Brianna laughs over the light-hearted exchange she had with some players who don’t find it a coincidence that the Lynnfield game she missed on Sept. 28 is the only game North Reading has lost this year. But while her presence was missed, the angiogram she had scheduled for that day gives her a free pass.

Especially since it revealed she’s healthy.

“They did say I was a good luck charm,” Brianna said. “But (the program) is my good luck charm.”

Her husband, Mike Driscoll, is amazed with how much he’s seen field hockey impact his wife’s recovery. After all, the early stages of her recovery resonate more like they were just days ago.

On Nov. 4, 2023, Brianna – as head coach of the Austin Prep field hockey program she started – was loading up the team bus for an away game. A lingering headache got worse, and she walked off the team bus because she felt nauseated. Then, her left eye started to hurt.

She called a co-worker in the building to bring her Tylenol, and the co-worker saw Brianna pale with glassy eyes. Shortly after, Brianna was boarding an ambulance instead of the bus.

“It happened very quickly,” Brianna said. “I thought (the paramedics) were going to give me the Tylenol so I could get on the bus, and they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, just go ahead and come on in.’ … As soon as I sat down, they strapped me down and I said, ‘Are you driving me to New Hampshire to the game?’ And they just knew something serious (was happening).”

Brianna was in a medically induced coma for a week from the initial surgery, and in Lahey Hospital (Burlington) for 22 days. She didn’t know her husband’s name when she woke up. She couldn’t formulate sentences. And at a slow rate, doctors and nurses worked with her on simple functions like eating, wiggling her toes, blinking her eyes, and saying hello.

“She had to learn her way through the simple functions of communication to be who she is now,” Mike said.

Part of that initial surgery was removing half of her skull and freezing it while all the blood around her brain receded. She wore a helmet for five months until undergoing her second surgery in late March, which was to officially repair the malformation in the veins and restore her skull.

The outpatient program at Lahey had nurses, speech therapists and physical therapists visit their home. By March, Mike estimates Brianna was at about 50 percent with her communication and cognition. Getting a dog, and Mike working from home, helped a lot.

It was hard for Mike to see her Brianna in so much pain. But for Brianna, the challenge was much deeper.

“Mentally, everything changing so quickly (was the hardest part),” she said. “I had my wedding four months before this happened, so there was so just much happiness. I got married, we have a house we’ve had for four years, I’m coaching another season at the school where I started field hockey five years ago. To just have that all dropped and taken away from you so quickly, it’s hard to know, ‘Well, what’s next?’”

“She was in such a beautiful spot,” Mike added. “There’s no one who loves field hockey as much as Brianna that I know of, but she also just loved being a part of the Austin Prep program and how she was able to found it and build it.”

Brianna’s prayers were seemingly answered when doctors at Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital (Haverhill) – who she had been working with twice a week since late June – told her in August she could start volunteering. She was told to pick something that makes her happy, and the choice was easy.

North Reading, where her two nieces play field hockey, was less than a mile’s walking distance away. It was perfect for Brianna since she still couldn’t drive yet, so her occupational therapist helped her build a resume to join the program. The Hornets had just lost one of their coaches, so it was actually perfect timing for them, too.

“It was like it was meant to be,” Brianna said.

Between the three coaches in the program, their dynamic meshes well. Head coach Mikayla Allen prefers them to function as co-coaches, with each of them doing a little of everything.

Brianna, who has been crucial in helping players newer to the sport develop, has been a welcomed addition.

“The three of us, we balance each other very well,” Allen said. “This sport, (Brianna) eats, breathes, sleeps field hockey. … She’s been a strong, positive influence and role model for all of these girls.”

The joy of being with the program is reciprocated.

“To me, those two coaches are therapists that aren’t paid for,” Brianna said. “They’ve helped build the courage and strength of what it means to be a coach again.”

“Even a month ago, or two months ago, this is not how she sounded,” Mike said. “I think that has a lot to do with her coaching field hockey, and that has a lot to do with the program that she was in.”

North Reading is enjoying its best start in at least four years. The Hornets checked in at No. 5 in the latest MIAA Div. 3 power rankings, while having a real shot at winning the Cape Ann League Kinney title. Wins over Newburyport, Manchester-Essex and Pentucket were eye-opening.

Suspense heats up at the end of the season, with rematches against Pentucket, Lynnfield and Newburyport lined up. North Reading has every intention of competing for wins in each.

But in the meantime, Brianna is simply getting back to being herself.