Scholastic Notes

Delmarva region

Maryland

MARYLAND STATE FINALS ARE OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

To say that history was made at the 2003 Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association tournament finals is to say that water is wet.

For nine hours over four matches the second Saturday in November of 2003, enough history and drama occurred to fill a small phone book.

After all, it was the first state tournament held on artificial turf as well as the first to be held at a hockey-specific stadium, which, in this case, was at the University of Maryland's Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.

It was also the first quadrupleheader in state tournament history, which meant continuous action except for the planned half-hour break in between the second and third matches to water the field -- also a tournament first.

Of course, given these firsts, it was also the first time in Lil Shelton's illustrious coaching career that her Severna Park Falcons had ever played on artificial turf.

Not that it mattered; she had her team practice and play on the Bermuda grass fields that are all over Anne Arundel County.

"There's not much difference between this and Bermuda grass," said Shelton, who should know: she had earned her 400th win in 2003.

The Falcons, in the Class 3A finals, met Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) in a true clash of field hockey titans. Never in the history of the National Federation had two teams totalling 25 state field hockey championships ever stepped onto the pitch. And never had they played for such high stakes; the teams usually play each other in the Sally Nyborg Invitational in Baltimore, but this time, it was for the championship of what became, in 2003, the toughest state tournament in the country.

Severna Park, tied with three other schools with 13 state championships, was looking for another. B-CC, with 12, was not only looking to tie the Falcons, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.), Moorestown (N.J.), and Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.), but to extend its National Federation-record string of consecutive state championships to 10.

However, Severna Park staked itself out to a 3-0 lead at 22 minutes and took a 3-1 win.

"When we first game out, we attacked, and that's how we get the goals in and get going," said back Lauren Maranto.

"They were beautiful," Shelton said. "The passes were great, the fast breaks were good, and the corners were unbelievable, too. And Maranto has a rocket shot that they couldn't see coming."

"If I have to end the run of state championships, I'd rather end it in a state championship game, and not before," said B-CC head coach Amy Wood. "Lil isn't winning 405 games and 14 championships being a slouch; they were outstanding, especially the first 20 minutes."

Severna Park's attack received its rewards on the scoreboard, but even as the Barons battled back in the second term, Falcons goalkeeper Dee Crovo showed unusual poise stopping a number of good Bethesda-Chevy Chase shots, repelling any attempt at a comeback.

"Those last couple of minutes were really intense," Crovo said. "And when you think about it, I didn't get much action all year."

Another team with state championship heritage is Pocomoke City (Md.), which won its 11th state championship with a 1-0 win over a game Poolesville team in the Class A final. The Warriors have won seven straight finals in which they appeared.

"We know it's do or die time, and we don't want to finish playing," said Pocomoke City head coach Sue Pusey. "That says a lot about these kids; they give it all they have got."

A big part of Pocomoke's win were defensive saves made off the line by defenders Tara Massey, Brooke Tapman, and Jennifer Powell. The latter two were made in an eight-minute span deep in the second half as Poolesville, the defending state champions in Class A, made a late push to tie the game.

"That's a senior and a freshman, with the senior (Powell) teaching the freshman (Tapman) what she's got to know," Pusey said. "Brooke, if you look at what she has done this year, has been a forward, a mid, and a back. Today, we needed her as a back, and that's where she stayed."

"In my situation, I was the strong flyer," Powell said. "But she had a strong shot, and I backed off to get the shot, and I did."

Rising Sun (Md.), which had tied Poolesville for the Class 1A title in 2002, moved up to Class 2A in 2003 and vanquished Hereford (Md.) 2-1.

For the Tigers and their players, it represented an even more significant achievement as the first undisputed state field hockey title ever won by one of the five high schools in Cecil County that play the game.

"We've always had good hockey programs," said co-captain Jessica Harris. "But we came in as the underdogs because nobody thought we would get out of our county."

The game was not finished without some last-minute drama. Hereford won a corner in the final seconds of regulation, so it had a single untimed corner play in order to send the game to overtime.

However, Rising Sun defender Stephanie Ohrt -- the smallest player on the team -- cleared the ball with her goalkeeper down, ending the match.

"When they scored, they picked it up on the attack," said co-captain Kristen Miller, who had the team's second goal. "I rushed on the last corner, but the girl got the hit off. Steph got it out, and Megan Gibb ran it out."

But for all of the history, firsts, and drama of the day, the final match between Gaithersburg Quince Orchard (Md.) and Silver Spring Springbrook (Md.) for the 4A championship had the best storyline.

After all, Silver Spring is not exactly a field hockey hotbed, being set smack in the extreme southern portion of Montgomery County, abutting the hockey-challenged District of Columbia.

When Kearney Francis took over the field hockey coaching position in 2000, the team was in terrible shape and there was no off-season recreational program.

But little by little, the team improved, and players came out of the Montgomery Youth Field Hockey Association and started gaining spots on the Blue Devils' varsity.

By the time 2002 came around, Springbrook would get an unexpected benefit, as the family of midfielder Kajee Murangi chose to leave Namibia to come to America. Murangi, a former member of the small African republic's national development program, added skill and possession abilities to the Blue Devils' midfield.

In 2003, Springbrook was a define threat to win the state championship. By then, the senior class had Murangi, speedy forward Jada Richardson, and a number of good role players who did their jobs well.

By the time the team got to the state championship, it not only had their share of supporters (complete with white ThunderStix), but it had a few detractors. A group of students from Edgewater South River (Md.) -- the Blue Devils' semifinal victim -- had joined Quince Orchard in cheering against Springbrook. The Blue Devils had gotten a reputation for being physical throughout the season, and nothing done during the game lessened that reputation. Murangi was suspended for persistent infringement in the first half, but that trend eventually turned against Quince Orchard.

That's because, late in the second half with the score tied, the Cougars had two players suspended for off-the-ball activities. It was during this period when the Blue Devils took a 2-1 lead.

"I'm sorry that happened to us," said Quince Orchard head coach Jenna Siegel. "Springbrook is a physical team, and I told the kids not to retaliate, and that hopefully the calls would go in the other direction. And I guess we got frustrated."

However, Quince Orchard came back and scored after one of the two players returned to action.

"That was extremely impressive," Siegel said. "Five minutes is a lifetime."

The score was tied 2-2 at full time, meaning that two periods of golden-goal overtime lay ahead. Francis assembled an aggressive lineup for the first overtime period, knowing that, by Maryland's rules, none of the six field players in the first 10 minutes could play in the second.

"It's all about getting to the ball first," Francis said. "It's our best seven against their best seven: bring it on!"

The lineup paid off, but not in the way you might expect. In the 63rd minute Murangi crafted a superb through pass to Richardson -- the fastest player on the field -- but she rushed the shot two steps into the circle and fired well wide. Three minutes later, however, Katie Klass -- perhaps the slowest player on the field -- engaged in a ragged-edge-of-disaster scoring play for the ages.

She took the ball at the 25-yard line, but was cleanly stick-tackled. Klass, however, rescued the ball and, with the Quince Orchard defense converging, fired a long, low shot into the far side of the goal cage.

"I get called 'Ice Age' because, outside of field hockey, I'm pretty slow -- not mentally, but physically," Klass said. "But put a ball and stick in my hand and it's a different story."

"She's such a gamer," Francis said. "But she told my sister (Lesley, the team's JV coach), 'If I'm slow or if I'm not playing well, you have to pull me out.' That's the kind of kids we have. They don't want to be out there because they like the uniform; they only want to be out there if they deserve to be there."

The goal -- and the fact that the game had ended -- took several seconds to set in; it took a while for the bench to run off of the bench to group-hug Klass.

"They are the most united group of kids I have ever coached," Francis said. "Nobody knew at the beginning of the season except us: those girls, their parents, and our athletic department."

The implications could be even greater about how a good developmental program can get a varsity team to improve rapidly. Symbolically, a few MYFHA instructors were in the stands at the final.

"Ever since that program developed, the incoming freshmen coming in have been great," Klass said. "I think we're setting a good example for the JV, and they're going to continue this."

MEADE DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE

Fort Meade Meade (Md.) is perhaps the single most unusual story in the state's 2003 field hockey season.

Meade High is located in the middle of a military base which also happens to host the headquarters of the National Security Agency. Its student population is 52 percent minority, and many families do not know whether they will be in town from year to year, such is the nature of military life or within the world of espionage.

There is no feeder or middle school program, either. Combined, that is usually a formula for disaster. For seven years, the Mighty Mustangs were anything but, struggling and suffering through winless seasons.

When Carrie Vosburg took over in 2000, the program was in tatters. She appealed to Marlene Kelly, the Anne Arundel County supervisor of athletics, for a waiver to expand her roster to include boys. It was agreed.

By 2003, the Meade team was on the verge of qualifying for the state tournament with brothers Josh and Jarrod Davis filling out the Mustangs' 17-player roster.

But publicity about the two got some schools agitated, notably Gambrills Arundel (Md.), who made it known that the team would forfeit rather than play against the Mustangs' full roster.

Going back on the original waiver, Anne Arundel County banned the boys from playing. And they were also rendered ineligible to play in the state tournament.

The Mustangs were brackted against defending 4A state champion Annapolis Broadneck (Md.). Four subs? No boys? No problem.

Meade upset Broadneck 2-1 on a pair of Kelly Benik goals.

"We've been through a lot this year," Vosburg tells The Washngton Post. "The whole mindset of the team changed. They had their minds made up that they weren't going to lose."

BARONS TACKLING TOUGH STRETCH

For Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) to have extended its National Federation record for consecutive state championships to an even 10, it would have had to navigate a minefield of state tournament foes that has made the Maryland 3A championship the toughest state tournament in the nation in 2003.

The Barons got a dry run in October, having to play Baltimore Bryn Mawr (Md.), crosstown rival Bethesda Holton-Arms (Md.), and defending 1A champion Poolesville (Md.) in a span of six days.

Amy Wood's team started off well in this late-season stretch, beating Bryn Mawr 1-0 on a Bethany Martin shot in the 53rd minute. Her blast deflected off a Mawrtian defender on the way into the cage. The team lost to Holton-Arms 1-0 a few days later, but came back to beat Poolesville.

"It's great because it gives us a chance to prove that we're better than everyone thought we were going to be," Martin tells The Washington Post. "We just had to be patient, keep our composure. It's going to go in."

ST. MICHAELS LOSES GAME, GAINS A KEEPER

For the last couple of years, games between Easton (Md.) and nearby St. Michaels (Md.) have become the Eastern Shore's hottest rivalry.

However, first-year St. Michaels head coach Jena Crissinger found herself low on numbers in 2003, and had to discontinue junior varsity field hockey. She also had to scramble to find a goalkeeper before settling on sophomore Carla Cooper.

"She has never played in the goal before," Crissinger tells the Easton Star Democrat. "She just put the pads on three weeks ago."

Though the Saints started the 2003 campaign 0-2, Cooper appears to be a worthy successor to Missy Cannon, now at Division III Delaware Valley College.

In a 4-0 loss to Easton, Cooper made 18 saves on 26 shot attempts. The St. Michaels attack had no shots on goal.

"They know what they need to do, they just didn't do it," Crissinger told The Star Democrat. "They've been taught, they just didn't do it. I don't know where they were - that's not my team out there today."

Virginia

VIRGINIA CHAMPIONSHIPS GO DEEP INTO OVERTIME

Sam Howard has been on a mission ever since her family moved to Virginia from New Jersey, where she played on a perennial powerhouse team at Washington Warren Hills (N.J.)

Except for a little extra red, she now wears somewhat similar colors for Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.). The last couple of years, the Cavaliers have risen to all-time heights thanks to the skilled attacker with the deadly shot. And nowhere was it more deadly than at America's field hockey home base.

Howard's golden goal in the 87th minute allowed Woodson to take a 2-1 overtime win over Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.) at the Olympic Training Center in Virginia Beach.

She had gone into the Class AAA tournament thinking about her former program. "If they can't win their state tournament, I want to win one for them," she said during the team's run though the Northern Regional tournament.

And she did. She latched onto a neat cross from Ashley McCulloch and slipped the ball between post and pad.

"I saw that there was under three minutes left to play and then the ball came in to me," Howard told The Virginian-Pilot. "I knew I just had to make contact with the ball and control it. I knew I had to get a shot off as quick as I could."

The win gave the Northern Region its first state championship in more than 20 years, and was astounding considering the proximity of the Olympic Center to Princess Anne High.

There was also some extra motivation for Howard that is not felt in most every other field hockey-playing state: Virginia breaks its ties in championship games with a round of penalty strokes.

"If I didn't make it happen quickly," said Howard, "it probably would have gone to strokes."

In the Class AA/A final, Williamsburg Lafayette (Va.) got a goal from Kellie Jenkins in the 77th minute to beat Fredericksburg Chancellor 2-1.

Jenkins, a junior attacker of reknown, had been a marked woman in regulation and in the first overtime before her head coach, Pat Thompson, gave her a running mate in Tilly Luzar to try to win the game before penalty strokes.

"My philosophy is to put pressure on the opponent's keeper," Thompson told The Virginia Gazette. "With the way they were playing defense, Kellie couldn't do it alone. I sacrificed defense for more offense."

NORTHERN VIRGINIA "TIPPING POINT" GAMES BREED CHARACTER

In Virginia's AAA division, four regions send two teams each to the state tournament.

This makes the semifinal round of each region perhaps the most intense set of doubleheaders in the country.

In the Northern Virginia regional tournament, the Final Four at Oakton (Va.) High constituted perhaps the most unusual of combinations, given the fact that two No. 1 seeds -- Chantilly (Va.) and state runner up Burke Lake Braddock (Va.) were already eliminated.

Defending regional champion Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) had its hands full with Alexandria Thomas Jefferson (Va.), one of less than a half-dozen magnet schools in America that play high-school field hockey. But Courtney Arnold's goal in the sixth minute of overtime gave the Cavaliers a hard-fought win.

A key to the match, as well as to Jefferson's magical run through the tournament, was the play of goalkeeper Kendall Stone. The junior is a soccer and basketball star for the Colonials and for off-season club programs, but has made a guest appearance in field hockey as memorable as U.S. ice hockey gold medalist Tara Mounsey's stint for Brown University's field hockey team in 1999. Stone's confidence and determination was such that opposing players and parents congratulated her for several minutes after the teams had left the pitch.

"You know, if we had about five more minutes, we could have won," she said while proudly wearing a University of North Carolina key lanyard and T-shirt. "Sometimes we are looked upon because we are known for our smarts rather than our sports."

But Arnold put in a Samantha Howard pass to deny Jefferson its dream.

"We were getting really good shots, but we had to get on her pads to get more opportunities," Howard said.

In the other match, Annandale (Va.) came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Vienna James Madison (Va.) 3-2. It was the Atoms' first state tournament berth in 14 years.

"Once we got that second goal, I knew we had players that refused to be denied, and you could see that they were fired up," said Annandale head coach Cindy Hook.

DAUGHERTY CROWNS THE COMPETITION

The history of scholastic field hockey is rife with stories about the adventures of members of the homecoming court.

Lindsay Daugherty of Burke Lake Braddock (Va.) was hoping her Bruins would rack up an early enough lead so that she could make the school's homecoming parade.

But Braddock and Fairfax Robinson went through the first half without any goals. Same with the second half.

As overtime loomed, Daugherty was worried; she had gotten permission from head coach Diane Miller to leave the site of competition once the game was secured.

"It was so frustrating," Daugherty tells The Northern Virginia Journal. "We wanted to score, we knew we could score, we needed to score, but we couldn't get it in."

That is, until the 16th minute of 7-on-7 overtime. And who else to end it but the 2003 Lake Braddock Homecoming Queen?

"It was an awesome day, I was really excited," she said after being crowned at halftime of the football game.

"Her face was just priceless," Miller tells The Journal. "They announced that she had won and said, 'And she scored the game-winning goal against Robinson today,' and everybody cheered for her. I felt so bad that she missed the parade, but I'm glad she scored that goal."

The Bruins remained undefeated (10-0-1) with the victory."

ISABEL MAKES BEACH-AREA TEAMS BOND WHEREVER POSSIBLE

Hurricane Isabel had a devastating impact on the greater Virginia Beach area in mid-September 2003, and affected greatly the length and available playing dates for its field hockey programs.

Some teams did doing whatever they could in order to keep in contact with each other, urging players to train on their own or in small groups.

One such group is the team at Norfolk Maury (Va.), whose coach, Beanie Schneider, planned for the occasion. According to the Virginian-Pilot, the team met at the school for long-distance running, drills, and 7-v-7 games.

"This will be good for them," Schneider tells the Virginian-Pilot. "It�s a good lesson in independence and leadership.�

Families whose power was left intact have seen their houses become meccas for many whose power was cut off. One was Chesapeake Western Branch (Va.) head coach Dawn Smith, who planned team gatherings at her place.

�I�m not sure how many will be able to get here,� Smith told The Virginian-Pilot. �Some of them still have trees on their roads and might not be able to make it.��

LAKE BRADDOCK MAKES SHORT WORK OF HERNDON TOURNAMENT -- LITERALLY

Hurricane Isabel was not the only weather event of the 2003 field hockey season in Virginia. Heavy thunderstorms the first week of September made tournament organizers at the Herndon Invitational -- at 16 teams, one of the largest invitationals in the United States -- scramble to organize, and reorganize, the event.

Assistant coaches, parents, and even one intrepid journalist were commandeered to line the fields necessary to accomodate three fields and the 16 participating schools in a carnival of 30-minute games.

The shortened matches put a premium on quick starts as well as the endurance to play that fourth contest well.

And for Burke Lake Braddock (Va.), it was all a matter of putting in penalty strokes. The Bruins beat North Stafford (Va.) 3-2 in strokes after a goalless draw.

"It's not like anone was killing anyone ele -- they were all close games," Braddock coach Diane Miller tells The Northern Virginia Journal. "It was a long day, and in the end it was a matter of who had some legs left."

In the semifinal round, Lake Braddock also had to win a strokeoff, beating McLean 1-0. On the other side of the bracket, North Stafford bested defending state champion Midlothian James River (Va.), spoiling a possible rematch of last year's Class AAA state final.

Delaware

TOWER HILL TIES SEVERNA PARK WITH 14 STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

It has been said that Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) is so good, they could play with one arm tied behind its back.

During the 2003 state playoffs, the rest of the tournament was hoping that one leg could help their chances. Paige Schmidt, the scholastic All-American, had not been herself during the Hillers' state tournament run because of an injury.

Still, Tower Hill vanquished all comers, including Bear Caravel Academy (Del.) in a 2-0 win to tie Severna Park (Md.) for the all-time National Federation record for state championship wins at 14.

Schmidt controlled the game like the yellow jersey controls the Tour de France -- with excellence and a little frontier justice.

She had a goal and an assist in a the fifth minute as if to say, "Don't even think of mounting a comeback; I can do this all night."

Caravel earned only two penalty corners the entire match and had no shots at goal.

"This is probably the most important state championship to me," Schmidt tells the Wilmington News-Journal. "It was my last one, my last time playing field hockey for Tower Hill, so I obviously wanted to go out on top."

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP DECIDED BETWEEN UNDERCLASSWOMEN

After 23 corners and 65 minutes of frustration, a goalless draw between Newark William Penn and New Castle Brandywine fell to the execution of a sophomore and a freshman.

The sophomore is Brandywine corner flyer Danielle Meier, who was outstanding in keeping William Penn at bay.

The freshman, however, was William Penn's Allie Williams, whose flip into the cage on an overtime corner was the golden goal in the Colonials' 1-0 win. The victory clinches the Blue Hen Flight A conference championship and its automatic qualifier (AQ) into the state tournament.

"We stopped everything they gave us," Brandywine coach Willy Miranda told The Wilmington News-Journal. "They should have scored on us two or three times. They tried every corner they had."

The Bulldogs still have an outstanding record and should make it into the state championship tournament.

For last year's notes from this region, click here.