By Ken Weingartner
Before Ewing High senior Beth Cunniff got to participate in the field hockey team’s annual Play for the Cure game, she watched it from the stands as a middle school student. She understood its importance then, but it has become even more meaningful since being on the field.
Ewing’s Play for the Cure game was created to raise money for breast cancer research in honor of assistant coach Kelly Ahearn’s mother, Sheila, who lost her battle to the disease in 2007. In the ensuing years, the event has raised thousands of dollars, including more than $1,200 this season.
“It’s really special,” Cunniff said. “It’s grown so much. All our friends are here (for the game) and they’re cheering the whole time; the whole school and community get behind us for it. It’s great to play for something that’s bigger than yourself. It’s awesome.”
This year’s Play for the Cure game was held Oct. 6 at Ewing, against Hamilton West. The team raised money through the sales of concessions and specially made T-shirts for the event. Donations also were collected throughout the day.
“It’s a great opportunity for the community to come together,” Ewing senior Nicole Jurczynski said. “It means a lot. It’s very meaningful to the team. It’s incredible. I wouldn’t expect everyone to support us the way they do, but they really support us.”
Since Ewing started its Play for the Cure game, a number of other Colonial Valley Conference teams have launched their own versions. Ewing, which has raised as much as $4,000 in a single year, visited Nottingham for its Play for the Cure game two days after the Blue Devils hosted Hamilton West.
“The girls adore Kelly,” Ewing head coach Leslie Conant said. “It makes me feel good to do this in remembrance of her mother. She was very close with her mom; they had a really tight relationship. I think having this support around her makes it a little easier.”
The squad is like a family, she said.
“When something happens to one of us, it kind of affects all of us,” said Conant. “This is a way for the girls to give back, to see there is more than just field hockey and school. They get excited about it. It makes them feel special to be able to do something for somebody else.”
As it turned out, Ewing won its games against Hamilton West, 4-0, and Nottingham, 6-0. The victories were part of a four-game win streak that saw the Blue Devils improve to 5-6 after a slow start.
“We have a lot of young players, but we’ve come a long way since the preseason in August,” Jurczynski said. “We realize our strengths and our weakness and what we need to do in order to score. We’re really connecting and playing as a team, instead of individuals.”
Through its first 11 games, Cunniff led the team in scoring with nine goals, including three in a 5-1 win at Steinert. Jade Hall was second with five goals, followed by Raquel Sparano with four and Jurczynski with two. Maddie Beck, Serina Montero and Maggie McGinn each had one goal.
“It took us a little bit to figure it out, we kind of had a rough beginning, but we’re now able to get the ball up the field and have a lot of fast breaks every game,” said McGinn, a senior and co-captain with classmates Beck, Jurczynski and Cunniff. “It’s just a matter of getting the ball in the cage now. We’re so close.”
Goalie Erica Weber had made 42 saves for the season and helped Ewing post four shutouts.
Katie McGinn, Veronica Wilson, Meagan Jenkins, Kady Francis, Natalia Rodriguez, Brianna Grose and Lauren Ettinger make up the remainder of the squad.
The small, tough squad, said Conant, puts in hours of drilling a week and expects a lot from itself.
“We have great team leadership from our four seniors and girls who haven’t played too much are stepping up and have absorbed everything we’ve taught them,” she said. “As a coach, it’s so exciting. All that hard work and time and sweat and tears is paying off. I’m really happy.”
Cunniff, perhaps not surprisingly since she is the team’s top scorer, said with a grin that her favorite part of playing field hockey is “the sound when the ball hits the back of the cage.”
“I love the sport so much,” she added. “I like winning, but I just like putting my all into it.”
Ewing does not have a junior varsity program, which can make it more challenging to develop younger players, but it also makes it more rewarding.
“You’re with the same girls for four years straight,” Conant said. “Sometimes you kind of wish you had a JV program to build, but then I wouldn’t be as close with Nicole and Beth and Maddie and Maggie. They’re a really special group of girls.
“I love them all. They work so hard and I just hope they get everything that’s coming to them. I want them to feel the kind of success I think they deserve.”
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