High School Lacrosse
POSTSEASON
May 15, 2007
Manual's Canary worked her way from bottom to top
By
NATHAN CHAMBERS
BeyondTheDerby.com
Before her freshman year at Manual even began, Samantha Canary missed the cut at field hockey tryouts - an inauspicious beginning to a high school athletic career.
Nearly four years later, on the cusp of graduation, Canary became the leading scorer in the Kentucky Lacrosse Association and captained Manual close to its fourth straight Division 1 title this week - a most auspicious ending.
No one is more surprised than her.
“I was decent at sports before, but I never considered myself great at them,” she said. “It’s really a big shock.”
Coaches say that athletes “work hard” or “have a great work ethic” so often that sports can begin to sound like Lake Wobegon. But there is no better explanation for Canary’s ascension to these heights.
“She has a determination to succeed,” Manual coach Steve Auden said. “Don’t misunderstand. She’s an excellent athlete. But she works and works to improve her game every day.”
Canary (shown at left, picture by Michael Wohlleb) was named Manual’s Most Improved Player after her freshman year. She was named Manual’s Most Improved Player after her sophomore year. She was named Manual’s Most Improved Player after her junior year.
Now she may be the KLA’s best player.
“If she’s not the best, she’s one of the best,” Auden said. “But I certainly would argue hard that she is the best.”
Oldham County coach Greg Dillon understandably is partial to his own daughter, North Oldham senior Katie Dillon, who has signed to play lacrosse at the University of Louisville and is the only senior in Kentucky with a Division I scholarship. Otherwise, he might have to agree with Auden.
“Sam is in the top 99 percent,” Dillon said, with a laugh.
Canary was a field hockey player at Meyzeek Middle School when she decided to join a friend at a lacrosse practice in the eighth grade. She never played field hockey again.
She played for Manual’s junior varsity lacrosse team as a freshman in 2004, the year that the Crimsons - then known as the Red Dawgs - won their first KLA title, and she made tremendous strides. During the indoor season in her sophomore year, Auden told her that she was close to earning a varsity roster spot.
“That’s when I started buckling down,” Canary said. “That’s what made me as dedicated as I am now.”
In her first season as a starter in 2006, she ranked sixth on the team in points with 28 goals and seven assists (including non-KLA Division 1 games) as Manual won its third straight title; she was voted to the All-State First Team; and she was chosen as an Academic All-American.
After the season, Canary and Katie Dillon were selected to play for the Great Lakes Region team in the Women’s Division National Tournament at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. That experience persuaded her to buckle down again.
“I thought that I put all my time into the sport, that I was pretty good,” she said. “But those girls there blew me away. Some of them had been playing since they were 5. They ran circles around me. That my put my skills in perspective. It made me work harder to get better.”
Canary, who has shared captain duties with seniors Annie Makela and Laura Leavell, led the KLA in points this season with 27 goals and three assists in seven Division 1 games, and she had 39 goals and five assists (including non-Division 1 games) when Manual’s season ended with a 10-9 loss to Collegiate in the semifinals on Monday.
She could have scored many, many more. Auden purposefully held her back at times to keep games from getting too lopsided.
“I’d say, ‘OK, Sam, I want you to work on this now,’” said Auden, who often forced her to use only her left hand. “She never complained. She understood that we were using it as an opportunity for her to get better.”
She had the future in mind. She decided to attend the University of Louisville - in part because she received the President’s Scholarship - and she will have to try out for the women’s lacrosse team, which will make its varsity debut next season. Coach Kellie Young already has recruited a full roster.
“I was told that if they see a really standout player, they’ll take her,” said Canary, whose grade-point average is 3.98. “That’s what I’m working on this season.”
Manual has had two other players enter Division 1 college lacrosse programs: Alicia Meredith, now an assistant coach, at Ohio State; and Bianca Mitchell at Davidson. Auden thinks Canary should be the third.
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have told her to go to U of L,” he said. “She absolutely should be playing in college, and she should be able to play for U of L. There will be girls there that are faster, bigger, stronger, just like there have been other girls she has played against that are faster, bigger, stronger. But she’s better. I have no doubts that she’ll be tallying points for U of L just as she has for Manual.”
“If there’s any girl that has the heart and desire to play on that team or anywhere else in college, it’s Sam Canary,” Greg Dillon said.