Experience the difference

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo File photo Blake midfielder Rachel Schexnayder (center) was the team MVP a year ago and an All-Gazette first-team selection. She’s one of many reasons the Bengals have high aspirations this fall.

While this year’s squad probably isn’t as talented as that one, the Blue Devils return a veteran group, which includes five experienced seniors, from a team that went 8-6 following a slow start.

‘‘The girls have been working hard in the off-season, and they have terrific chemistry,” said Springbrook coach Kearney Francis, who has compiled a 42-19-2 record in her first five seasons at the school. ‘‘I know they truly enjoy the game and playing together. We have high expectations.”

Those experienced returnees consist of seniors Keely O’Tool (midfield), Leah Arthur (defense), Melissa Katski (midfield), Jacquie King (attack) and goalkeeper Avian Spiller and juniors Hanh Nguyen (defense) and Lauren Kessler (attack).

Spiller was an honorable-mention All-Gazette selection a year ago.

Speaking of great seasons, Blake is coming off its best campaign in its seven-year history, compiling a 12-2-1 record that included a season-opening win over the then-defending champion Blue Devils.

The team’s only losses were to Class 3A state champion Bethesda-Chevy Chase (14-4) and 4A state finalist Whitman (11-6) in the program’s first appearance in a regional final.

Blake could be even better this season as 12 players return from that potent squad, including senior halfback Rachel Schexnayder, an All-Gazette first-team selection and the team’s most valuable player. She organized the team’s defense and penalty corners, while also scoring four goals with three assists last fall.

She’s surrounded by experienced seniors Megan Hanagan (attack), Samantha Hanagan (attack), Kim Coyle (midfield), Kathryn McGinn (defense) and Caitlin Williams, the team’s goalkeeper who Burch said showed the most improvement since the off-season.

‘‘The team recommitted themselves to off-season training and playing as much as possible on their individual club teams,” Burch said. ‘‘It has taken a lot of hard work to create a program, make it solid, and then make it competitive. It’s nice to step back and watch the team compete at such a high level.”

Like Blake, Good Counsel had its best season ever, capturing the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title with a victory over arch-rival Holy Cross a year after falling to the Tartans in the regular-season final.

Unlike Blake, however, the Falcons will look to repeat without several key players from last year and with a new coach in Kelly Stodter, who does return senior forwards Victoria Chapa (7 goals in 2004) and forward Marie Steinbraker, junior midfielder Ashley Stodter, and junior goalkeeper Pam Lander, who starred in the win over Holy Cross.

‘‘We have a very athletic team,” said Stodter, who is also the junior-varsity girls lacrosse coach at Good Counsel and the girls varsity basketball coach at Sandy Spring Friends. ‘‘I don’t have a lot of year-round field hockey players but a lot of very good athletes. Our JV was undefeated so they’ll fill some roles. It will be a smooth transition. I expect to win the WCAC again.”

Looking to block that repeat attempt will be Holy Cross, which also has a new leader in long-time county coach Candy Thurman. Thurman spent the previous 24 seasons at Walter Johnson, winning a state title in 1989.

She inherits a program that lost a handful of players that guided the Tartans to the 2003 WCAC title and to last season’s league championship match. Both championship games against Good Counsel were decided by penalty strokes.

‘‘We have a lot of good athletes but we graduated a lot of seniors,” Thurman said. ‘‘We’ve had some 80 girls come out for all the programs.”

The return of veterans Taylor Greaney, Megan Squire, Patricia Moran and Liz Fitzpatrick will help offset those numerous personnel losses, which include leading scorer Sarah Rutland, who poured in 17 goals last year.

Magruder’s top scorer, Emily Harwood, who produced 17 goals and seven assists to earn Gazette Player of the Year honors, also graduated last spring, leaving long-time Colonels coach Kathleen Mulholland searching for offense.

‘‘We have some big shoes to fill losing Emily Harwood to American University,” she said. ‘‘We have talent from the front to the back but [there will still be] a little rebuilding.”

The good news is that Mulholland does return a slew of varsity players in junior forwards Kristen Kopanda and Jen Cooks, junior center midfielder Krissy Blumer, senior center back Andrea Hassler, senior forward Rachel Oxman, senior goalkeeper Carolyn Freel and senior midfielder Kellie Collins.

‘‘We have a lot of strong players back who saw a lot of time last year,” Mulholland said.

Good Counsel and Holy Cross aren’t the only two programs in this area that have new coaches this season as Blair (Brook Franceschini), Kennedy (Jacqueline Waite), Paint Branch (Dan Feher), Sherwood (Amy Morse) and Wheaton (Kim Pabst) will be led by new faces this fall.

Feher takes over at Paint Branch after serving as the school’s junior-varsity coach a year ago. He inherits a solid squad that reached the 3A West quarterfinals and compiled an 8-6 record overall a year ago.

Returning from that team are senior midfielder⁄forward Rachel Blair (8 goals, 3 assists), senior midfielder Kristin Smith (3 goals, 2 assists), junior midfielder Christine Craddock (goal, 2 assists) and senior defender Erin Harper.

The team’s two newcomers will be junior midfielder Stacey Markham and junior forward Emily Dematatis, who are up from the junior varsity.

‘‘We have a solid group of returning players, led by the strong midfield, and we’ll be looking for those players to support us on our side of the field and push the ball offensively,” Feher said. ‘‘We have a solid defensive group but are not as deep as I would like, and we’ll be looking to develop players into strong defenders all over the field.”

Franceschini becomes Blair’s third head coach in as many years and she takes the reins of a program that has struggled since the departure of Springbrook coach Kearney Francis six years ago.

Franceschini hopes to stem the team’s slide, which included a 2-11 mark a year ago, and she’ll look to do so through the play of returnees Sydney Valdez (midfield), Julie Spatz (forward), Anna Chiplis (defense) and Jessica Hallberlin (midfield) and newcomers Maura Druhan (goalkeeper), Cate McGraw (forward) and Illiya Smithka (forward).

‘‘The girls have been working hard to succeed and improve their skills all summer by attending camps and conditioning,” Franceschini said. ‘‘The girls are playing with their hearts on their sleeves and just want to be a competitive team this season.”

That’s also Morse’s goal at Sherwood as the new coach returns several seniors in offense players Mindi Berkheimer, Mallory Finn, Cody Hysell, Bianca Lane and Lauren Ochsenreiter, defenders Samantha Fernebok, Samantha Debow, and Aly Kauffman and goalkeeper Kat Jenkins. Berkheimer and Finn were the team’s leading scorers a year ago.

‘‘One of the main challenges we as a team are working on is learning how to play together as a unit,” Morse said. ‘‘We need to be able to play the game, while always remembering the goal and how we can help each other by being in position and communicating. Our goal for this season is to play every game with high intensity and push ourselves for 60 full minutes of play.”

Einstein certainly made strides under then first-year coach Suzanne Murray, who returns a host of seniors from last year’s squad that recorded a 1-0 upset of eventual 3A state champion B-CC.

Highlighting those returning veterans is Lindsay Hightower, a senior forward⁄midfielder, who produced five goals and three assists a year ago. She’s joined by senior defender Susan Miller and senior midfielder Theresa Desautels. Junior defender Kerry Bowen and junior goalkeeper Hannah Turner will add support as the team’s top newcomers.

Fast facts

Blair Bengals

Head coach: Brook Franceschini, 1st year

Last year’s record: 2-11

Last state title: None

Players to watch: Sydney Valdez (Sr., M), Julie Spatz (Sr., A), Anna Chiplis (Sr., D)

Blake Bengals

Head coach: Shella Burch, 7th year

Last year’s record: 12-2-1

Last state title: None

Players to watch: Rachel Schexnayder (Sr., M), Samantha Hanagan (Sr., A), Megan Hanagan (Sr., A)

Einstein Titans

Head coach: Suzanne Murray, 2nd year

Last year’s record: 5-6-1

Last state title: None

Players to watch: Lindsey Hightower (Sr., A⁄M), Susan Miller (Sr., D), Theresa Desautels (Sr., M)

Good Counsel Falcons

Head coach: Kelly Stodter, 1st year

Last year’s record: 10-7,

League affiliation: Washington Catholic Athletic Conference

Last league title: 2004

Players to watch: Victoria Chapa (Sr. A), Pamela Lander (Jr. G), Ashley Stodter (Jr., M)

Magruder Colonels

Head coach: Kathleen Mulholland, 15th year (128-76-11)

Last year’s record: 9-4

Last state title: 1996 (3rd)

Players to watch: Kristen Kopanda (Jr., A), Kristie Blumer (Jr. M), Andrea Hassler (Sr. D)

Paint Branch Panthers

Head coach: Dan Feher, 1st year

Last year’s record: 8-6

Last state title: N⁄A

Players to watch: Rachel Blair (Sr., M⁄A), Kristin Smith (Sr., M), Christine Craddock (Jr., M)

Sherwood Warriors

Head coach: Amy Morse, 1st year

Last year’s record: 4-9

Last state title: 1985

Players to watch: Mindi Berkheimer (Sr., A), Mallory Finn (Sr., A), Samantha Fernebok (Sr., D)

Springbrook Blue Devils

Head coach: Kearney Francis, 6th year (42-19-2)

Last year’s record: 8-6

Last state title: 2003

Players to watch: Kelly O’Tool (Sr., M), Leah Arthur (Sr., D), Avian Spiller (Sr., G)