Bow News : field hockey

Bow’s Frank earns respect, awards with aggressive, selfless play

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:33:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Not much could slow Marisa Frank, not even a pair of concussions.

The Bow resident recently completed her final year of competition at Ithaca College, where she was a key cog on the school’s Division-III field hockey team.

After sitting out one contest this season following her first head injury, Frank returned to the field, only to take another blow to the head from a ball.

The defender left the field and was thoroughly checked by the medical team before returning, completing the contest and then finding out she had suffered another concussion.

“After I got off, the other team scored two goals, and I just couldn’t be off the field anymore,” said Frank. “It’s torture from the sidelines, and I had to be back out there.”

It was that attitude that earned Frank the title of captain during her junior and senior years, an attitude she said she learned playing at Bow High School.

“It’s not defense and offense. You’re just a player. You do what’s necessary,” said Frank. “That intensity and the expectations for greatness had us push so hard. It made the transition to college so easy because coming into college that’s what’s expected on a daily basis.”

Frank’s coach at Ithaca, Tracey Houk, said Frank was the right choice for the captain’s role. “Having a captain who’s a junior is very rare for us,” said Houk. “She really leads by example, and obviously her teammates took notice of that.”

Although she’s completing her senior year, Frank is continuing her education by taking part in the school’s five-year program. When finished, she’ll earn her doctorate in physical therapy.

Each season, the Bombers take part in a timed mile to open preseason training, a run that begins at about 6 a.m. It wasn’t until this year’s early-morning run that Frank realized it was the beginning of the end of her playing career.

“We started running, and I said to myself, ‘Yes! I will never have to do one of these again,’” said Frank. “Then I realized, ‘Oh, no! I’ll never get to do one of these again.’”

And following the run, Frank and her fellow seniors agreed to pour themselves into their final season. It paid off. The Bombers won eight times, the team’s highest total since 2003. Frank, who made three defensive saves and added her first career assist this year, has been piling up postseason accolades.

She was chosen to the All- Empire 8 first team for the second straight year and recognized on the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division III All-Region team. But there was one honor that Frank prizes even more.

When the Empire 8 handed out its awards, Frank earned the Sportswoman of the Year Award for the second year in a row. “You can put all your energy out, and it can affect how you play in the game, but if you don’t play with class or respect, it takes away from the game,” Frank said.

Building confidence – Bow’s second-half offensive outburst means victory

Bow Editor — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:17:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Lacking a consistent offensive punch so far this season, the Bow High School field hockey team appeared to be in rough shape on Friday, Sept. 21, against visiting Pelham High School.

Things aren’t always as they appear.

The Falcons bounced back to score three unanswered goals en route to a 3-1 victory, improving the team to 3-5 on the season.

Bow senior captain Becka Keyes tied the contest with 15:58 remaining after Pelham’s Kellie Chadwick broke a scoreless tie two minutes earlier.

“In field hockey, unless you are an amazing field player, it comes down to heart and who wants it. You have to have that will and desire,” said Falcons head coach Tracy Berube. “We saw that (our players) could run and hang with Pelham, and they just had to want it more.”

At halftime, Berube asked her girls if they wanted to score one goal. After they replied, “Yes,” she said to them, “No! You’re supposed to say we’re going to score more than one!”

Heather Bennett put Bow ahead for good with 10:45 remaining when she punched in a rebound, and Julia Romano added the final score with a little more than one minute remaining in the contest to seal the victory.

Despite allowing the three goals, Pelham’s Alex Catalano was outstanding in goal, making 14 saves, many under heavy pressure from the Bow offense.

The Pythons spent much of the day near the Bow goal, something Pelham head coach Mary Johnson said is difficult to overcome.

“Punching the ball in when you’re that close is the most impossible thing to teach. It’s right there, and it’s just a matter of wanting it,” she said. “You can take the ball 100 yards and get it to that 10 inches, but sometimes that 10 inches seems even farther.”

Sarah Strumpfer played well in goal for Bow before leaving with back pain.

The Falcons have yet to build momentum so far this season, but perhaps the victory over 2-6 Pelham is the start.

Berube said her team met the night before the contest and left the casual conversation with a good feeling.

“We had a good talk last night about who we are and who we want to be,” she said. “Today was a really good day for our confidence."

Dominant effort – Bow beats up on overmatched John Stark, 10-0

Bow Editor — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:02:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

Bow High School’s field hockey team had scored three goals in four games heading into a Sept. 12 home contest against John Stark. That goals-per-game average certainly received a boost by game’s end.

The Falcons defeated a weaker opponent, spending nearly the entire game on the offensive side of the field in 10-0 win over the Generals.

Lexie Welch began the scoring early in the first half and Bow never looked back, opening a 4-0 halftime lead. Falcons head coach Tracy Berube said the outburst should help her team down the road.

“We haven’t been scoring a lot so far this season, so scoring 10 was good to see, especially how we were able to spread them around,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, whether it be John Stark or Merrimack Valley. Our skill level should not change.”

Bow had multiple players score on consecutive attempts. Heather Bennett scored two goals in a row late in the first half, Molly Strempfer netted consecutive scores early in the second, and Sarah Strempfer added the final two goals of the contest for the Falcons.

The win for Bow was the team’s second consecutive after losing three straight to open the 2007 campaign. The girls lost on Friday, Sept. 14, to Milford, 3-1. Berube said inexperience is still an obstacle for her group to overcome.

“We are a very young team, and we are still building,” she said. “But we have these building blocks of confidence, and that’s good. We were able to try some different players out in different positions today, which is helpful for down the road.”

Bow High girls exit playoffs after rough regular season

Bow Editor — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:41:00 GMT

By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

PENACOOK – When teams meet at midfield to shake hands following a game, it’s usually a muddled mess of half-hearted low-fives and “good games.”

But Julieann Hartley really sounded like she meant it.

Following the Bow field hockey team’s 4-0 loss to Merrimack Valley in the first round of the Class I tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 18, Hartley, a Bow junior, caught the gaze of nearly every one of her opponents in the single-file line, raised her voice a few decibels and told them, with conviction, “Good luck, enjoy it, good luck.”

“It” was the rest of the playoffs. And the Falcons, who relished in a state championship run a year ago, were just handed their ticket home.

A season with early expectations and late frustration ended for Bow and its 12 seniors following the shutout.

The box score said it was three second-half Merrimack Valley goals that did Bow in, but after struggling to find the same team chemistry from 2005 during a 6-8 regular season, Bow coach Tracy Berube pointed to the Falcons themselves.

“It had nothing to do with skill and not so much with injuries. It was ourselves,” Berube said in explaining the season. “It was in the teambonding kind of way. We had certain expectations, and we were accustomed to certain things from last year, and they weren’t there this season. So I think we just got in our own way.”

Berube said Bow only started to find that chemistry with about two weeks left in the regular season. That improvement culminated in a 9-0, regular-season-ending win over John Stark – a team Bow had beaten 4-1 a month earlier – but Berube said it came too late in the year to really propel the Falcons to another playoff run.

Bow had lost 13 seniors from the year before, including two key players in Katelyn Nerbonne and Molly Morrow, but neither Berube nor her players expected this amount of struggling.

The Falcons were 5-4 in late September, but four straight losses – including their second of the season to Merrimack Valley, a 5-0 setback – ultimately put them too far into a hole.

“It just wasn’t there,” said senior Kristen Richtarik. “It wasn’t there on the field. It wasn’t there off of it. We took a lot of things that were bothering us in school onto the field with us.”

Besides Richtarik, senior starters Sara Crisp, Sarah Manburg, Hannah Varney, Veronica Wilkins, Bri Wombolt and Kelly Ryan graduate next spring.