Scholastic Notes

Midwest region

Illinois

DEWALT'S BACKHAND COMPLIMENT GIVES OPRF TITLE

Ever since young field hockey players started learning odd moves from international players at summer camps, there have been coaches discouraging these players from using these tools in games.

So perhaps the object lesson of Kara Dewalt, a junior attacker from Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) will give a few coaches some pause.

Dewalt had spent the first 49 minutes of the Illinois Field Hockey Association state final going against the defense of Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) at OPRF's turf field.

But upon receiving the ball in the 50th minute, an idea sprang into the scorer's mind.

"I just decided to go with the backhand," Dewalt told The Sun-Times Newspapers. "I missed some shots earlier in the game and I wanted to make up for it. I didn't want their goalie (Kathleen Quinlan) to make another save."

And with that, zzip! the backhand whip shot went in. Oak Park held on for a 1-0 win.

"I think it did catch her a little off guard, not expecting it," Dewalt said. "I have done it a few times before."

The Huskies felt fortunate coming in, since New Trier had upset three-time defending state champion Lake Forest (Ill.) 1-0 as Quinlan made 27 saves. In the other semi, OPRF thumped Homewood-Flossmoor (Ill.) 4-0.

"I really felt we deserved to win," Dewalt said. "We worked really hard for just that one goal. This is just awesome. To do it on our home field makes it even better."

LAKE FOREST HAS TREVIANS' NUMBER

Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) had earned a 1-1 tie with Lake Forest (Ill.) for 59 minutes and 30 seconds their first meeting, only to see the opposition score in the dying seconds of regulation.

In the rematch, New Trier head coach Stephanie Nykaza was hoping her Trevian varsity had made the adjustments to play better. Instead, Lake Forest won the rematch 4-1.

"For us to lose like that this late in the season, it's all mental," Nyzaka tells Winnetka Talk. "Now's the time we have to start moving up and get stronger. Instead, we seem to lose focus like we did against Lake Forest."

With the state playoffs at hand, Nyzaka's hope is that the Jim Davis First Law of Field Hockey applies, and that the defending state champions will be too overconfident on the third meeting.

"Once things start going wrong, they can't seem to get their composure back and make adjustments quickly enough," she says. "It was hard to watch them crumble against Lake Forest. They're trying hard, but we just could not pull it together against them."

EDWARDSVILLE MAKES ADJUSTMENTS

The Edwardsville (Ill.) field hockey team got some benefits from playing in the annual Gateway Classic the weekend of Sept. 6th.

But it learned that there could be pitfalls as well. The Tigers took a few minutes to get used to playing on grass, having played on the artificial turf at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Soccer Park over the weekend.

"All of a sudden, we were trying to run it too close to our sticks and we either stumble or dislodge it," head coach Sharon Petty tells The Edwardsville Intelligencer. "But once we adjusted we got a little confidence. We made some decent passes, made some decent attempts on goal. We also had some misconnections, but that's going to happen."

It took about 21 minutes for Brooke Weber to notch the first goal, the first of three in less than a quarter of an hour.

Michigan

DOAN THE DIFFERENCE FOR PIONEER

It's almost unfair.

There are slightly more than a dozen teams in Michigan, but the power is centered in Ann Arbor. It was obvious, given the fact that the last 10 championships have been won by either Ann Arbor Pioneer or Ann Arbor Huron.

And it would be these two teams meeting for the 2003 title, with Pioneer taking a 1-0 win thanks to an Allyson Doan overtime goal.

"They had fun with it and they had great passion for the sport," head coach Jane Nixon told The Ann Arbor News. "There was team spirit and team chemistry and team unity. I think people really valued being part of this team."

The Pioneers finished the season with a 17-2-4 record, while Huron finished 14-2-2.

"To have only two losses is amazing," Huron coach Beth Rust tells The News. "We feel good about the way we played all year."

Oddly enough, a third Ann Arbor team, Greenhills High, took the consolation match -- one of the few third-place matches held in state championship competition -- with a 1-0 win over Detroit (Mich.) Country Day School.

"It was exciting to have all the Ann Arbor teams in the top three again," said Greenhills coach Aimee Grant. "Our goal this year was to finish in the top three, so the girls were really happy to achieve the goals we set early in the season."

GAINS AND LOSSES IN MICHIGAN'S FUTURE?

There is talk that the addition of one or two more schools to Michigan's pool of 13 teams may prompt the Michigan High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) to govern the sport statewide, and to create an official state championship.

But with a good mix of public and private schools competing for the present unofficial state crown, plus the relaxation of certain travel and playing rules that allows teams to go out of state and even out of the country to play, there is some reticence to giving up their independence.

"I kind of like how it is now," says Courtney Elliott, who with her Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) team traveled to Canada for a four-team tournament early in her scholastic career. "Then again, I'd like it if we could play more teams; you get used to playing only 12 other teams in Michigan, whereas Pennsylvania has more than 200."

After all, exchanges of information and teams could benefit the sport.

"I remember they weren't as skilled as we were, which was surprising seeing as how many college coaches recruit Canadian players," Elliott recalls about the tournament, which Pioneer won. "But playing more teams is always good."

Ohio

OTTAWA HILLS BLEACHES HATHAWAY

Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown (Ohio) had the nation's second-longest winning streak (37 games) as well as the No. 7 ranking in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 entering November.

Bot Toledo Ottawa Hills (Ohio), having emerged from a contentious regional bracket that almost landed in court, was able to overtime the jitters and Hathaway Brown, winning 2-0 in the Ohio state semifinals.

Ottawa Hills has beaten Columbus Bishop Watterson (Ohio) in the sectional finals, a team that only got there after actually losing a game to Worthington Thomas Worthington (Ohio) if the match had actually ended as the rules said it must. Worthington had taken a one-goal lead in a third overtime period which was supposed to have been a golden goal.

The umpiring crew, however, allowed play to continue as if the period, and a subsequent one was played as full periods of extra time.

The controversy, however, was the furthest from Ottawa Hills and their supporters.

"After the way our kids played today, if we play like that (in the finals) I�m not sure anybody in the state can beat us," head coach Jo Cooley tells The Toledo Blade.

URBAN PREP SCHOOL COULD MAKE INROADS SOON

Cincinnati St. Ursula (Ohio) had, in September 2003, the finest girls' soccer and girls' volleyball team in the nation.

Not a bad feat.

But for Derek Aspinall, the city's only certified field hockey coach, success in the sport is a matter of doing the necessary things for success. He is planning a spring hockey club for the spring of 2004 to start off-season training.

Aspinall, who hails from England, has brought St. Ursula from the doormat of their league to respectability in a short time, comparable to the club league where he is from.

"I strongly believe that the girls here could play at that level," he tells the Cincinnati Post.

For last year's notes, click here.