Jan. 5, 2008 — The value of “small, but mighty”
Yesterday in Hartford, Karen Funk, the long-time head coach of Marathon (N.Y.) won the Dita/NFHCA National Coach of the Year award from the National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association.
I’ve always had an affinity for small-town field hockey teams like Marathon. Whether I’ve been following or watching Selinsgrove (Pa.), West Amwell South Hunterdon (N.J.), Mifflinburg (Pa.), Pocomoke (Md.), Florence Memorial (N.J.) or very small private schools such as Princeton Stuart Country Day School (N.J.), I’ve come to expect greatness.
Why? I remember a phrase uttered by a young woman named Kristy Moore, a forward for Stuart back in the mid-1990s. After the Tartans beat The Lawrenceville (N.J.) School, a school five times bigger than they were, in a 1994 contest, Moore told me, “We’re small, but mighty.”
I’ve never forgotten that phrase, nor the look in her eye when she said it.
I’ve seen many great things on a hockey pitch when it comes to teams from small towns, small schools, or even small player pools. Allentown William Allen (Pa.) is a good-sized school in a town of 100,000 people, but has a very small pool of field hockey players to draw from, given the crime, pregnancy, and drugs found in pockets of the city.
Franklin (N.J.) once played the 1993 varsity season with just seven players — and nobody quit the team. A few years later, Florence played an entire JV season with seven players.
The Florence varsity, back in 1994, once held off a West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) team with 10 future NCAA Division I players for more than 59 1/2 minutes before conceding the game-deciding goal.
I’ve witnessed Pocomoke on a remarkable run of state championship performances: three-quarters of the Indians’ seasons since Sue Pusey took the reins of the team have resulted in a state championship.
Which, of course, brings me to Marathon. This wasn’t necessarily the year that the Olympians were supposed to win the Class C title, since the midfield was so ably held together by Meghan Dean, now at the University of Maryland.
Yet Karen Funk and the Orange and Black Attack managed to be the team hoisting the NYPHSAA trophy at the end of the season.
What’s the secret for the small-population teams? It’s simple: the attitude has to be”your 11 against my 11.” You can have a high school the size of, say, Arizona State University, but you can only use 11 players at a time, not 50,000.
If you’re from a small school — or any school, for that matter — belief is the first step; just read three entries down for a living example of that philosophy.
Tags: Field hockey
