GARDEN CITY TOUCHES PERFECTION

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

The village of Garden City, N.Y. looks like your typical suburban enclave -- two-level houses, gleaming grass lawns, chirping birds in flower beds.

The serenity of the town, however, masks the presence of a juggernaut wearing claret and white.

The Garden City field hockey team pushed itself to a level that has been otherworldly in the late 1990s. The Trojans not only went through the entire 1998 season unbeaten and unscored upon, but assembled an amazing 33-game shutout streak continuing into the next season.

Heading into the second month of the 2000 campaign, Garden City had shut out 45 of 47 opponents in posting a 46-0-1 record since the start of the 1998 season, taking a pair of state titles.

Ever since the National Federation started compiling field hockey records, there have been teams with longer unbeaten streaks. There have been teams with more All-Americans, more state championships.

But in the game of field hockey, that ancient ritual in which a single bobble or deflection can decide a game, Diane Chapman has assembled a program which has played the closest thing to perfect hockey for more than two seasons. The 33-game shutout streak was the keystone.

"They are just hard workers -- during practices and games, off-season, during the season," Chapman says. "They try to be supportive on the field, and we've been extremely lucky."

"The coaches are great," says senior forward Lauren Seery. "We all seem to work really well together."

Putting a finger on what has made the team successful is extremely problematic. Unlike many winning dyanasties in sport, there is no one obvious secret to Garden City's pursuit of perfection.

In fact, for most of the young women on the Garden City team, field hockey isn't even their best sport. The girls' lacrosse team has won numerous state and Long Island titles over the past decade, and their participation in the state tournament has precluded their attendance at the National Futures Tournament.

On the field, the team has no flash, no boastfulness, no fancy moves. But once the opening whistle blows, as on this day against East Setauket Ward Melville (N.Y.), there is a sense of urgency.

Like the Princeton men's lacrosse teams of recent vintage, the Garden City players scoot in eight- to 10-yard bursts to an open spot better than just about anyone else.

"We have a fast team, and that's one of our pluses," says defensive midfielder Jamie Cohen, who was the sweeper for the Garden City teams that strung together 33 straight shutouts.

On this day, this characteristic is especially prescient. The Trojans were able to connect for a second-half goal when senior Lauren Seery, trusting that sophomore midfielder Jessie Riccio would be in an open space on the right wing, unselfishly sent the ball to an open space from which Riccio could do almost nothing but score. It was the only goal in a 1-0 Garden City victory.

What was particularly outstanding about the Trojans' win was, however, the defense. Without bunching or being flat-footed, Garden City was able to prevent Ward Melville and stellar midfielder Brittany Carriero from breaking through on the scoreboard. And when the visitors were able to get a shot on goal, goalkeeper Kim Williams made the save.

The players use space beautifully, and don't do anything very fancy, save for a backhand shot on goal borrowed from a tape of the Olympic men's final. It looks like plain vanilla field hockey, but it is extremely effective.

"The kids are self-motivated," Chapman says. "They are disciplined and organized, and they get things going on their own."

The players are well-schooled in fundamentals, and make only one glaring physical error in the hour of hockey played against Ward Melville. The possession game is extremely good, and flies in the face of the "touch-and-get-rid" game most high-school teams play.

Garden City gets results on the field partially because of the little things done off the field. The field hockey team is placed front and center in terms of exposure, playing its home games in front of the stands erected for the school's football team.

The field is not used for football practices, so the grass is in near-pristine condition. Effort is not spared to maintain the field; the grass is cut four to five hours before home games, and the field is re-lined in yellow for the hockey team.

Oddly enough, the parents and home fans for Garden City do not use the surrounding bleachers: they offer positive encouragement from behind the bench, a respectful distance from the field.

They all make the five-hour drive to Syracuse for the state semifinals and finals. They do the weekly pasta parties as well as some hospitality for teams that visit from long distances.

"We have the greatest parents in the world," Chapman says. "We tell the parents in the early parents' meeting that we expect a lot out of their girls, and the parents are behind us 100 percent. It definitely helps our program."

Fans are encouraged to come back; perhaps the team's most loyal spectator is Dr. Frank Kieran, who started coming to games in 1960. His involvement in the game is as a result of forward thinking -- but on the part of members of the 1967 team.

"I just used to be big on just football and baseball," he recalls. "When my daughter was going to school here, she got other girls organized to picket my house one morning. They called me a male chauvanist. The neighbors were wondering what was going on."

It wasn't a very large protest; less than five students congregated on the front lawn of the Kieran residence. However, the protest culture of the 60s proved to be powerful enough.

"If you go and leave me in peace," he told the impromptu assembly, "I'll choose one girls' sport to support, while I support the baseball team in the spring."

Since that incident, he has become a living history of the field hockey team, amassing small bits of facts about the program. He knows that the team began play on an intramural basis in 1937.

"We've had good coaches," he says. "These coaches have three state championships and we've been in the playoffs 13 out of the last 14 years. The game has gotten real big here."

Kieran is almost an unofficial team motivator. For several years, member of the team have received a couple of motivational items from him. Every team member wears a white cotten strip either on her forehead or around the top of a shinguard.

The strip is actually a headband for taekwondo participants; the South Korean flag is in the center of the headband alongside the word "taekwondo." On the other side, written in Korean, is the phrase, "Silent as the wind, strong as the storm."

Dr. Keiran also gives out brass pins with the word "MVP" to the Garden City player the coaches believe was the offensive and defensive players of each match.

The Trojans' success can be seen in terms of preparation as well as self-motivation, as well as a team of parents and administrators working seamlessly behind the scenes.

It worked for Garden City's field hockey, boys' and girls' lacrosse, and baseball teams for the 1999-2000 academic year.

But what accounts for perfection?

"I think that not being the one whose mistake leads to a goal for the other team has something to do with it," Chapman says. "They want to maintain the level of play that's been there before them, and that's great because they work hard to do that."