Field hockey: She’s not sweating it

A teenage girl steps out of the shower. She has just finished washing away the toils of a long basketball practice. But, as she steps out, she sees a rash covering her body.

Meghan Dawson is allergic to her own sweat — but she doesn’t know it yet.

“I got out of the shower and I was like, ‘Wow,’ and I had a rash all covering my body,” said Dawson, a defensive back on North Carolina’s field hockey team. “And I was like ‘Mom, look it’s everywhere.’”

Dawson was in the eighth grade when she first noticed the developing allergy. After multiple trips to the doctor, Dawson still didn’t know the source of her reaction. It wasn’t until high school that doctors determined she was allergic to her own sweat.

“At first I was just like, ‘Wow, this is awful. This is really bad.’ It would itch and my body would become overheated and I would just feel like I was on fire,” Dawson said. “And I also developed asthma from it, so I would have an inhaler.”

Despite this, Dawson continued to play sports and said she refused to let this new barrier stop her.

Over time Dawson noticed her reaction was less severe when she was outdoors, presenting fewer problems when she played her first love: field hockey.

A humble beginning

Dawson was the sixth out of eight children born to Dave and Karen Dawson — two boys and six girls. And although each of the six daughters is a good field hockey player, they came from humble beginnings.

“My next-door neighbor used to be my history teacher, and what he did was, he had these sticks and he handed them over the fence and said, ‘Here, let the girls play with them’ and I had no idea what they were,” her father said.

Those sticks were field hockey sticks.

After that, the girls spent hours hitting balls against the brick foundation and staging games in their Berlin, N.J., backyard.

“When they missed it would hit the basement windows and I was replacing basement windows all the time,” Dave Dawson said.

Meghan Dawson first played in fifth grade for her school. Throughout grade school she played basketball and softball, but field hockey was her passion.

As a junior and senior, she earned All-American honors in field hockey and received a scholarship to UNC.

UNC knew what kind of player Dawson was when they recruited her.

The family business

The Dawson family is laden with field hockey talent. All three of Dawson’s older sisters have played for the U.S. national team.

Dawson’s older sister Rachel was a star at North Carolina from 2003 to 2007 and won National Player of the Year as a senior.

Her younger sister, Hannah, plays field hockey at the University of Michigan while Melanie, the youngest, is a senior in high school.

In the 11 years that a Dawson has played field hockey at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, N.J., the team has gone 251-7-8 and won 10 consecutive state titles.

“One thing about all the Dawsons is that they are competitors and they play with heart, and Meghan has that,” coach Karen Shelton said.

“And, now that she’s back in and she’s in the starting position, her level of confidence is getting better and better and better and so that heart is going to start coming through more and more.”

When Dawson came on her official recruiting visit, Rachel was away representing the U.S. national team.

“She was still overseas in the World Cup, so when I came on my official, she wasn’t here. It was like, ‘This is what it would be like without Rach’,” Dawson said. “But, I mean, it’s always nice to have a sister on the team and it was already like a home for her and I just kind of stepped in and it was kind of an easier transition.”

Dawson enrolled at UNC and chose not to redshirt her first season, admitting that much of the decision was because she wanted to play with Rachel.

The decision paid off, as the duo was a part of UNC’s undefeated national champion squad that season.

Dawson took a medical redshirt the following year after suffering a season-ending injury in the fifth game.

No sweat

Now a sophomore for the second time, Dawson has earned a starting job on the defense and found a niche in the locker room.

So far she’s been part of a unit that is surrendering 0.2 goals per game, the best clip in the nation.

“Each game she’s played this season she’s gotten a little bit better, a little more confident, and she’s really playing well,” Shelton said. “I feel really good about Meghan Dawson and her development.”

Dawson combats occasional breakouts by showering as soon as she can after a game or practice.

She still carries an inhaler for the rare, random moments when she has trouble breathing.

Dawson refuses to let her affliction dictate her playing field hockey — Shelton didn’t know she had it at all, and neither did many of her teammates.

“She’s delightful,” Shelton said. “She’s got this way about her. She’s got this laid-back, easy, funny, dancy personality that’s really nice in the locker room. She’s just Meghan.”


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.