Scholastic Notes

Southern region

KENTUCKY

After a gripping semifinal, the task of winning a state championship for the Louisville Assumption (Ky.) Rockets was much simplified.

The black-clad minions won their third state title in four season, storming Trager Stadium with a dominating effort against Louisville Ballard (Ky.) in a 5-0 win.

Credit the attacking flair of the Brightwell sisters, Christine and Katie. They had goals by the quarter-hour; Christine Brightwell would get her hat trick by the 49th minute.

"The teams I've been with every year have been awesome," Katie Brightwell tells The Louisville Courier-Journal. "We play as a team, and that's how we win."

"Ballard has moments of greatness," said Rockets head coach Debbie Judd. "Fortunately, they didn't have any of those moments against us in this game."

Indeed, the Bruins did not look like the team that held the Rockets' attack down in regular-season play.

"This score doesn't show how well our defense played the rest of the year," Ballard head coach Liz Lewis tells The Courier-Journal. "We have a great, great team. We still made it to the final, and we're very excited about that."

Assumption's road to the state final had meant playing Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) for the third time in 2005. And in case you were wondering, The Jim Davis First Law of Field Hockey came into play again.

Sacred Heart, with the wonderful goalkeeping of Brittany Miller, had played outstanding hockey in the Gateway Classic in St. Louis and at the Viking Invitational outside of Chicago, and had beaten Assumption in the Apple Tournament final as well as in a regular season game.

But in the state semifinal, Assumption opened up its attack early. Alex Frantz scored in the game's sixth minute, whilst Lauren Schming added a Rocket goal in the 16th.

The Valkyries responded with goals in the 38th and 46th to tie the match before Katie Brightwell's shot in the circle went off a Sacred Heart stick into the cage with a shade over 12 minutes remaining.

MILLER ENSURES REPEAT OF HISTORY

If it's an Apple Tournament you want to win, there perhaps is no better feeling for a coach than to sent Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) goalkeeper Brittany Miller into the cage, especially during a penalty stroke shootout.

In a near-identical performance to her heroics in 2004, she repelled a pair of Louisville Assumption (Ky.) shots to lead her Valkyries to 3-2 victory after a goalless draw.

"She's a phenomenal goalie," Sacred Heart coach Liz Lewis tells The Louisville Courier-Journal. "It's God-given talent, but we work on strokes every practice, and she takes it seriously every time as if we were out here."

NORTH CAROLINA

MAZZIOTTO REVERSES CHAPEL HILL HEX IN A BIG WAY

In the waning days of summer 2005, the field hockey program at Chapel Hill (N.C.) was not in the best of shape.

"I kind of fell in their lap," admits former U.S. women's national team pool member Lauren Mazziotto. "The parents had thought they were going to have one of them to coach the team until I got an email. I thought, 'Why not?'"

Whatever she did, obviously, worked. The Tigers capped off an 11-1 season with a 2-0 state championship victory over Asheville (N.C.).

Mazziotto, a member of the U.S. indoor national team pool in 2005, presented a different way of coaching to team members that empowered them to reverse their fortunes.

"I'd like to think my coaching role model is (Wake Forest coach) Jen Averill, because she allows her players to make decisions on their own," Mazziotto says. "I didn't want to be an authoritarian coach."

The changes were noticable. In 2004, Chapel Hill had lost to nationally-ranked East Chapel Hill (N.C.) by two 9-0 scorelines. And, at the time, Mazziotto, as assistant coach at Wake Forest, was trying to recruit Wildcats star midfielder Michelle Kasold.

In 2005, Mazziotto was completely on the other end of the rivalry in more ways than one. She got the Tigers to take on her own can-do attitude, winning a 2-0 regulation game, and winning a penalty stroke shootout after a 1-1 draw.

But the week before the state semifinal against East, the task was to prepare the team without letting them fall into the trap of the Jim Davis First Law of Field Hockey. Mazziotto, a member of the 2005 U.S. indoor national team, even had her team practice on the gymnasium floor to get ready for the artificial turf on which the game would be played. The preparation was rewarded on a Sarah Fisher goal in the 55th minute.

"Once they beat beat East Chapel Hill, they all went, 'Whew!', because that was going to be their true challenge," Mazziotto says. "Not that the Western champion was going to be easy."

And it wasn't. Chapel Hill had not seen Asheville all season and was not used to the Cougars' style of play.

"As the game went along, I was trying to make adjustments," Mazziotto says. "It was a very intense game."

For last year's notes, click here.