High School Field Hockey
CLUB HOCKEY
Nov. 20, 2006
Louisville players flourish within IFHCK
By NATHAN CHAMBERS
BeyondTheDerby.com
While most students are enjoying the Thanksgiving break from school concerns, Sacred Heart Academy senior Anna Middleton likely won’t be thinking about much else in the Southern California sun.
Middleton and 85 other Louisville high school students will be trying to impress scores of college representatives at the prestigious Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. - although not so much with their academic records as with their on-field play during the National Hockey Festival.
Field hockey coaches from colleges all over the country, including the University of Louisville’s Pam Bustin, will parse the collected talent to find the kind of potential that could blossom in their programs. They’ll watch the uncommitted juniors and seniors in particular at what the festival’s organizing body, USA Field Hockey, calls “the world’s largest amateur field hockey event.”
“This will be a big week,” Middleton admitted. “It could make or break some choices.”
But Middleton is in good company with the International Field Hockey Club of Kentucky, which has entered five teams to compete in the women’s under-19 and under-16 divisions at the festival.
IFHCK, as the club also is known, has sent numerous local student-athletes to college field hockey programs since former Pakistan national team player Yasser Kahn founded it in the mid-1990s. From the class of 2006 alone, six are playing in Division I and nearly 20 total are playing at some level.
Middleton has been traveling with IFHCK teams since she was a freshman and currently plays for the U19 IFHCK Dynamic.
“Playing for Sacred Heart, it’s about being with friends and playing for your school,” said Middleton, who won a state title with the Valkyries late last month. “I do learn a lot; I fine-tune my game there. But it was IFHCK that taught me how to play field hockey since day one. Without them, I wouldn’t have gone to any national tournaments or been seen by any coaches. If it wasn’t for IFHCK, I probably wouldn’t be playing any college hockey.”
One of Middleton’s IFHCK Dynamic teammates, Assumption senior Karah Nall, is a living, breathing example of what is possible for players with similar aspirations.
After the 2005 festival, Nall received letters from such top-25 schools as Wake Forest, North Carolina, and Iowa (Wake Forest was ranked No. 1 in the final 2006 poll and lost to No. 2 Maryland in the national championship game on Sunday). She recently made a verbal commitment to another top-25 school, U of L, which was ranked No. 14 in the final poll.
“The goal here (with IFHCK) is to make us better players to be able to go play in college,” Nall said. “Some of us do that, some of us don’t. But it gives us that opportunity.”
It was Kahn’s desire to make that opportunity more readily available that first spurred him to action.
Kahn moved to Louisville, where he had family, shortly after playing in the 1992 Summer Olympics and started working with local high school teams. He quickly realized that the lack of a club system, like the one under which he learned to play the game in Pakistan, was hurting Louisville’s student-athletes.
“I knew all over club hockey was getting bigger and bigger, and I thought we were at a disadvantage,” he said. “Coaching in high school, I knew that one thing we were missing was the exposure to players in other states. I talked to some soccer clubs with long traditions in Kentucky, like Javanon, and they said this is how their players get better.”
So he started IFHCK. He brought his loosely-organized first team to the festival in 1992, and the club has grown immeasurably over the years with the help of parents, high school coaches and college players. Parents, for instance, lead the club’s fundraising efforts and also coordinate each of the teams.
“The parents do a tremendous job in fundraising,” Kahn said. “We provide scholarships (for club participation) on a need basis, and they’ve raised thousands and thousands of dollars over the years.”
High school coaches - like Manual’s April White, Sacred Heart’s Liz Lewis, and St. Francis’ Olivia Netzler this year - and current and former University of Louisville players - like seniors Lisa Wasser and Andrea Roussel this year - serve as the teams’ coaches.
“We have an opportunity to be coached by a lot of different players and other coaches,” said Kentucky Country Day junior Christena Burell, who plays for the U19 IFHCK Warriors. “We get a mixture of their experience and their skills, and that’s good.”
IFHCK trains for much of the year. The rosters for the festival teams are selected during the spring program, which includes more than 200 players. The fall program is limited to the brief period between the high school state championship in late October and the festival in late November, but there also is a winter indoor program.
“IFHCK’s just one of those things I do year-round,” Middleton said . “It’s part of life, part of my routine. I know that once it’s over for me, I’ll realize its impact. But I try not to take it for granted.”
All in all, players spend more time with IFHCK than their high school teams. That experience can be particularly beneficial to someone like Male junior Jamie Kraemer, who plays for the IFHCK Warriors with Burell.
“No one else from Male plays on a U19 team, so I’m playing with all girls that I never play with during the high school season,” Kraemer said. “We have an OK field hockey team at Male, but coming to play with these girls who are the best at their high schools is always exciting and a lot of fun. And it makes you more versatile.”
Then there’s the festival, which attracts elite players from all of the nation’s field hockey hotbeds.
“It’s definitely a different type of competition from what we’re playing in Kentucky during our high school season,” Burell said. “It shows you what you’re up against if you want to play in college.”
But that’s not a problem for Louisville’s field hockey players anymore.
A complete list of the players on the five IFHCK teams is below. IFHCK Dynamic and IFHCK Warriors won their respective pools at the festival last year.
IFHCK Warriors: Christena Burell; Hannah Boyer; Caroline Clarkson; Courtney Clarkson; Evan Fowler; Meredith Golden; Alex Hale; Samantha Hayden; Hannah Jones; Jamie Kraemer; Amanda Laferty; Anna Miller; Lauren Noe; Kari Quill; Holly Thompson; Lauren Weir; Ellen West. Coach: Lisa Wasser.
IFHCK Dynamic: Rebecca Anderson; Christine Brightwell; Taylor Collins; Holly Graham; Allison Grant; Kelsey Kiper; Jill Lewis; Anna Middleton; Brittany Miller; Cynthia Morse; Karah Nall; Lauren Pfeiffer; Katie Norris; Leah Oberst; Gray Robinson; Lauren Schmeing; Amanda Seeley. Coach: Liz Lewis.
IFHCK Thunder: Kelly Beam; Christina Chapman; Amy Clark; Patty Cowley; Meredith Doll; Hannah English; Maggie Flowers; Madison Gamez; Devanny Kuhn; Jennifer McGill; Margaret Means; Sarah Ramsey; Gretchen Raque; Sara Sanders; Victoria Senninger; Brittany Sullivan; Rachael Walz. Coach: Andrea Roussel.
IFHCK Pegasus: Christina Bowman; Stephanie Burry; Madeline Cristofoli; Molly Dobbins; Katie Fenzel; Shelby Graham; Shelby Hawkins; Kristen Henn; Taylor Hodge; Lacey Jurich; Jessica Lindner; Hannah Lobdell; Megan McCall; Leah Mullen; Brittany Rebalsky; Carrie Walker; Hannah Walter; Lara Williams. Coach: Olivia Netzler.
IFHCK Spirit: Lynn Coryell; Kathryn Galle; Courtney Hart; Ingrid Hansen; Ashley Ingram; Sarah Jessee; Haley Jurich; Rachel Linkous; Dorothy McKay; Olivia Miller; Paige Neat; Elizabeth Otting; Jenna Quill; Kelsey Rothberg; Sydney Sprawls; Chelsea Sullivan; Maggie Swindall; Emma Trawick. Coach: April White.