Scholastic Notes

Midwest region

Missouri

LAFAYETTE PLAYING SOME SOCRATIC HOCKEY

There is a reason why Lafayette (Mo.) has, only six years into its existence as a field hockey varsity program, beaten the likes of St. Louis Villa Duchesne, St. Louis St. Joseph's Academy, and St. Louis Cor Jesu this season.

Actually, there are four. Kate & Meg O'Connell, along with Evie and Charley Wilkinson. These are the daughters of, respectively, head coach Kelly Yates and assistant Dee Wilkinson.

The four have been tremendous contributors in 2002, as the quartet dominate the regional scoring leaders, and have been chosen for national competitions such as the AAU Junior Olympics.

"It's fun, but sometimes (Yates) pushes Kate and me a little." Meg O'Connell told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "She expects more from us, but that's OK."

"It's fun, for the most part," Kate O'Connell said about her mother. "Sometimes she takes it out on me. It's easier to yell at me. She knows I can take it. I can understand. So there's some ups and downs, but basically it's good."

"Usually when you play sports, it takes time away from your family," Charley Wilkinson says. "Now, I'm with my sister and my mom during the day."

The Lancers' "know thyself" attitude has built a team chemistry that may be unmatched in the country this year.

"We're moms," Yates told The Post-Dispatch, "so we know how important it is for the girls to get their hair done for the Homecoming dance. But we're coaches, so we get to experience things with our kids that other parents just don't see."

Ohio

COLUMBUS ACADEMY "REBUILDING" PRETTY QUICKLY

Since when is a tie good, and a win bad?

Answer: when you're a rebuilding Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio) team trying to find your way.

Anne Horton has won the last three state championship with tremendous athletes up and down the Vikings' lineup, and have not lost a regular-season game since 1999.

But when her rebuilt lineup eked out a 2-0 win over Dublin Coffman (Ohio), she was not exactly pleased with the effort

"We've had a couple of nice games," she told The Columbus Dispatch, "but when we played Coffman we took a step back -- I felt like we lost.''

Later in the week, the team played a 1-1 draw with Upper Arlington (Ohio), which was more pleasing because of a goal from Amy Marotta. The junior has been playing the center-midfield position of last year's leading scorer, Martha Ferger.

Michigan

PIONEER HAS LITTLE MERCY

Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) has five straight Michigan High School Field Hockey Association tournament titles. And, if it can play as well as it did in its season opener against Farmington Hills Mercy (Mich.), woe betide the team that thinks it can get in the way of No. 6.

Pioneer outshot Mercy 20-2 on the way to a 6-0 win. Anlyn Addis had a pair of goals to lead the way, but the rest of the scoring and assisting was pretty well spread around. Head coach Jane Nixon, according to the Ann Arbor News, was still working on effective combinations even during the course of the opener.

"We're just trying to take things one day at a time and work as hard as we can work," she said after the game.

For last year's notes, click here.