Month: August 2015

The Lafayette Leopards found a swarming, diverse  offense in a 3-2 victory this afternoon at Rappolt Field. Paige Macrae used an assist from Ellen Colborne to score the first goal of her career. Using her strength in front of the goal Macrae gathered a nice feed right in the face of the Ball State goalie to open up a 1-0 lead 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the game. Ball State was not to be shut out as Lexi Kavanaugh used a Morgan Nash long pass to deflect the ball into the cage from the right side into the top right corner to knot the score at 1-1 at 20 minutes and 52 seconds into the game. It was at that point that the Leopards were to go ahead at 29:52 and were never to give up the lead when Amanda Madagan launched an unassisted high shot into the top right corner from the top of the circle.

However, the Leopards were not done as only five minutes later with only 50 seconds left in the half, Hannah Millen was to deliver an insurance goal off a corner using an assist from Kirby Szalkowski and Rosie Shanks. The Leopards had to work hard for the final victory as Ball State with 46 seconds left in the game had Merinda Morley  take  a pass deflecting the ball into the goal. Time finally expired with Lafayette the victors.

The game had several notable aspects, first the Leopards showed

some offensive power as they took 17 shots compared to Ball State’s 13. The second point is the Leopards had too many turnovers, a point  that will surely be corrected in practice before the Sienna game on tuesday. Third, there was a flurry of cards, more than I have seen in most Division one games.Fourth, the field was very hot and contributed to the fatigue that both teams felt, especially at the end of the game. There was a total of 26 minutes worth of cards given out to both sides. Lafayette in the first half, played short players for 12 minutes, which made their 3-1 lead that much more remarkable. In the second half, the Cardinals had 10 minutes in penalties, versus two minutes for the Leopards. A two minute penalty was awarded to Lafayette’s best player Amanda Madagan with less than one minute left in the game. In total. there were 7 cards given out, four yellows and three greens.

The Leopards will now play Sienna on tuesday night at 7pm at home

As the Lafayette Field Hockey team entered their state of the art field for practice today I was struck by a coach’s three T’s, training, technology, and teaching. When I was playing football and lacrosse at Lafayette in the “old” days of the 60’s technology consisted of film (sometimes budget wiling} of practice, training camp was more like 3 weeks in some gulag where taking water was a sign of being a “wuss,” and teaching was a coach yelling at you for the next 2 1/2 hours. It all has become far more professional.

We arrived at about 8:30 and within 15 minutes the players began to arrive to begin their second day of pre-season camp. With some gratification it was the freshmen who arrived first. ( no change there I remarked to myself) But as the eventual full 21 player squad arrived I did notice a distinct difference. Players were being wired up. Was this some new NCAA rule to insure that there is no cursing or abuse of players?? After thinking this was another conspiracy to soften our youth, I walked over to Emily Janis, the Lafayette assistant coach who was tending to a computer on the sidelines. Listed on the computer screen was a list of player names with output showing a list of numbers and a number with a percentage sign on it. Emily was more than eager to show me her new toy.

“This is the ultimate in athletic nerd,” volunteered Emily. Each player is wired to record their heart activity, and the coaches can read and record what the player’s heart is doing real time. Emily explained that heart activity has a large correlation with injury. We know at what percentage of the maximum heart rate each player and collectively the team is exerting at any given time. She and the trainer, Jon Edwards explained. Your maximum heart rate according to studies is 220 minus your age, so with this piece of technology we can know in practice and even during a game how long to keep a player in or at what point real training is happening on the field. Jon explained, “Look at Amanda Magadan, her chart spikes as soon as she exerts and comes down equally fast. That is indication of an athlete that is in excellent condition.” Coach Janis says this becomes a tool during games because we will know when a athlete has given as much as she can and might even lead to injury.”

The last of the triad is teaching. Coach Stone’s practices are a model of precision. Before drills begin she explains what is going to happen and what she wants accomplished. At the practice we attended she explained they were practicing shooting with a drill that simulates circle penetration. Then the team assembled with the captains who had words of encouragement ending with a circle cheer of “LC.”

During the session, skills were emphasized, including reverse stick shots, quick flicks, and popping the ball over the defender’s stick. Footwork and speed were closely watched at each station which drilled a specific skill. At 30 seconds left Coach Stone let her team know the drill was ending. Each player was to keep their own tally of goals during the drill which will be repeated in the afternoon practice.

There are of course different levels of skill. Anyone would be impressed with Madagan’s skill set, but others like Millen,  and Turner showed great ball control and Colbourne’s reverse stick shots looked deadly. Earlier in the day I asked Coach Janis on the overall level of fitness. She said about 90 pct came fit and ready to play, those that had not reached their goals are having some remedial training. Well, some things do remain the same after all, but the coaches assured EVERY player would be ready to play when the time came.