WHERE DOES EASTERN RATE AMONGST THE ALL-TIME GREATS?

By Al Mattei
Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

Now that Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) saw its Federation-record 153-game unbeaten streak end at the hands of an excellent Emmaus (Pa.) team on Oct. 22, 2005, it is time for a little perspective.

You can consider the streak like a timeline, thinking about the simpler life that the average person enjoyed in 1998, the last time Eastern had lost a match. You can consider numbers, such as the number of shutouts or goals scored. You can even stretch and twist the facts about the quality and frequency of opposition, the number of times Eastern had been behind at the interval, or the margins of victory on different surfaces.

But, whatever you do, consider of the totality of the streak first: since the Vikings lost to Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.) in November 1998, the streak Eastern assembled was almost one and a half times longer than the 106-game winning streak set by Oklahoma City Casady (Okla.).

There are reasons why Eastern has been so good and so consistent. Viking alumnae have been on All-American teams, both in high school and in college. Literature has been written about the attacking ability of players like Lindsay Domers, Shaun Banta, and Meghan Bain. And there are a number of former Vikings, such as Lori Hillman, Rachel Dawson, and Sarah Dawson, prominently placed in the senior and youth national team pools.

All of this begs the question: where does the Eastern program of 1999 to 2005 rate with the best teams in the century of American scholastic field hockey?

Can you compare any single team to, say, the Centereach (N.Y.) teams of the late 70s and early 80s, which starred the sisters Jill, Dana, Lauren and Tracey Fuchs, all of whom served as team captain their senior year?

Tracey Fuchs, you must remember, scored a record 82 goals in the fall of 1984. She was an unstoppable force whose strike rate was higher for one season than anyone else in Federation history. But in the lore of Nassau and Suffolk County hockey on Long Island, you will get many different answers as to which Fuchs sister was the best.

It's almost the same kind of debate that might spring up as to which team out of North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) was the best. The attacking prowess of teams in the late 80s and through the 1990s might have been unmatched when it came to the raft of stars coming through the program -- Diane DeMiro, Michelle and Lorraine Vizzuso, Sarah Duffy, and Therese Dinallo.

How about the 1996 West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) team, which won 22 out of its 26 games by shutout, and was led by the unstoppable Kathleen Kelly? Or the 1993 team which featured 12 seniors, 11 of which would play college field hockey, 10 of which went to Division I schools?

You can make a strong case for the Walpole (Mass.) teams which had a streak of 181 regulation victories (that is, the only Porker losses were in overtime or strokes) in the late 1990s through the early 2000s. These teams had the likes of Judy Collins, Cory Pelletier, the McDavitt sisters (Jennifer, Kate, and Tina) as well as the Rizzo sisters (Leann and Dina).

Or how about the Emmaus (Pa.) teams led by midfielder Cindy Werley? In the mid-1990s, the future Olympian was part of a series of teams which could intimidate the opposition just by making its two-by-two jog around the pitch before pre-game warmups. To be sure, there have been other excellent Emmaus teams, such as the 1997 team which went an entire season whilst conceding a single goal.

On the other hand, you can make strong arguments for Emmaus as an offensive juggernaut. There was the 2002 team which scored 188 goals, a then-national record -- but a record tainted by a loss in the state championship game. (The 2005 Hornets, incidentally, broke that goal-scoring record by the end of the Lehigh Valley Conference campaign).

Another extraordinary era of field hockey took place from 1994 to 1998. Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.), which featured Erika, Dalinda, and Chilly Banuelos as well as Kristi and Katie Gannon, can also lay claim to greatness. Their teams might have been better than anything that came out of the East.

Or turn your attention to Virginia Beach, where the 1995 Frank W. Cox (Va.) team, in winning the last of its seven straight state championships, had maybe its finest team led by senior Kim Miller, who tallied 63 goals that season.

Around that same time, there was an amazing Marathon (N.Y.) team featuring winger Carla Tagliente and midfielder Hilary Matson. Their roles would reverse in college, and they played so splendidly at the next level that you wondered how the Olympians ever lost a match when they were together in high school.

Go to the early 80s, and be amazed at the prowess -- both offensive and defensive -- of San Diego Serra (Calif.), which gave up one goal all season in 1980, 1983, and 1984. Meanwhile, Serra racked up 86 straight wins from 1983 to 1986.

Arguments can be made for teams which came to prominence around the inception of Title IX, such as the Stowe (Vt.) team which won five straight state championships between 1973 and 1977.

Focus your attention a few years earlier, and you can make an argument about teams like Gloucester (N.J.) of the early- to mid-1960s, when Maryanna Watson patrolled the attacking third.

Or you can speculate ad infinitum about teams which played a regular season without a chance to compete for a state championship, such as the early Philadelphia-area private schools which sent players on USA Field Hockey's 1923 tour of England.

You can also make a claim about the previous national record-holder for most games without a loss: The Casady School. The school still has longest winning streak -- 106 matches over 12 seasons.

That's an eternity in a country where school demographics can change with the stroke of a pen, the quashing of one bond issue, the construction of one group of houses.

Can any field hockey team dominate play in this environment for more than a decade? You can make an argument that Eastern is well on its way of so doing.

The middle-school programs at Gibbsboro and Berlin are still generating quality players. Parents and older sisters are encouraging the young players to start early. Accomplishments are visibly celebrated at the school.

Yes, it may be for another school, at another time, to seriously challenge Eastern's unbeaten or Casady's winning streak. But there are other marks the present Viking program is working on, such as the Federation record for consecutive state championships (nine) set by Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) from 1994 to 2002.

Wouldn't be surprised if that comes to pass.