RHS field hockey team jumps out to fast start
Courtney Allen put the Robbinsville High field hockey team’s goal as simplistically as humanly possible.
“We just want to do as best as we can,” said the junior forward, “and see where that gets us.”
It got the Ravens to a 5-1 start to begin the season, with their lone loss coming to a once-beaten Princeton team in overtime.
They are doing it under yet another new coach, as Alyssa Dragon left for Bridgewater-Raritan over the summer after one year at the helm. Former Burlington Township player Brandi Ritz took over and, along with assistant Jenna Calicchio, had the magic touch early in the season.
Both are just out of college, with Ritz graduating from Daniel Webster in New Hampshire last spring, while Calicchio graduated from The College of New Jersey.
“I wanted to stay up in New Hampshire, but I didn’t find anything up there,” Ritz said. “I love field hockey, I got this opportunity and grabbed it and ran with it.”
Ritz, who serves as a substitute in Robbinsville, applied for the assistant’s job. When Dragon left, she was offered the head job in July. Not a lot of time to prepare, but the chance of a lifetime for a wannabe field hockey coach.
“You can’t turn down an opportunity like that,” she said. “I felt bad for the girls, they’ve all told me what they’ve been through, a different coach every year. It was sad to me. I can’t let them down, I have to do something.”
Going into it, Ritz did not know anyone’s names and was entering a completely unfamiliar situation.
“I’m terrible at names to start with,” she said with a laugh. “Jenna is absolutely amazing. She helps me out a lot with that too. She was a lacrosse player, but she’s been unbelievable. The girls thought we knew each other before this, because we bonded so well.”
Whenever there is a change in coaches, it leads to some uneasiness with the players and this was no different. But it has seemed to work out just fine.
“Everyone was nervous, but she was really welcoming,” Allen said. “We knew what we had to do, and we just worked hard. We’re definitely working more on teamwork and passing. That’s the most important thing.”
The Ravens opened with two straight shutouts over West Windsor-Plainsboro North and South. That was followed by the 2-1 OT defeat to Princeton and a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over Notre Dame in which Mira Bharatiya scored the game-winning goal. The Ravens followed with 5-1 wins over Hightstown and Steinert, and after six games had outscored opponents 16-5.
Probably the most impressive stat was the well distributed scoring, as six different players had scored goals. Allen took the team lead with five when she scored four against Steinert on Sep. 22, Bharatiya had four, Ariana Dolce had three, Mandy Giordano two and Megan Kratz and Theresa Demkovitz one each.
“That’s awesome,” Ritz said. “I didn’t come in expecting one person to do all the scoring. They all have equal talents. They’re all amazing athletes, and they work hard and they depend on each other.”
The junior-laden lineup has Allen, Bharatiya and Nicole Walter up front, while Giordano, Kratz, Dolce, Caroline Parylak, Loren Klein and Hadley Flyge are in the midfield and on defense. Abby Fitzpatrick is in goal, sharing time with Maddie Cortina.
Walter and Giordano are the captains along with Parylak, who has been a key player.
“Caroline is a force,” Ritz said. “She works her butt off. She has a few kinks here and there but she works them out. All you have to do is yell at her, and she goes. Her stickwork is impeccable. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Allen feels a big strength of the team is how the defense helps initiate the offense by limiting shots and putting balls on the sticks of the midfielders.
“We have a really solid defense and a really good transition from midfield to offense,” she said. “We just really work together and have nice passing.”
That kind of teamwork is what Ritz preaches, even if it doesn’t make her the most popular on the team.
“I just tell them they’re a family and even if they all hate me as one, as long as they bond and use the teamwork that’s what I want,” she said. “It’s them, it’s literally them. I can only take them so far. They have to want it. It’s their work, not mine.”
Despite learning things on the fly, the coach said the lineup has been pretty well set since opening day, and she hasn’t been forced to do a lot of tinkering.
“It’s been pretty much a set lineup,” she said. “There’s a bunch of people that can play different positions. They’re very versatile. If one person is lacking one day, I have someone who can go in and do the same job as they can. They really balance each other on the field.”
Robbinsville is coming off an 11-5-1 season and figured this could be a solid year.
“We were thinking we were supposed to be good because we played really well last year,” Allen said. “We knew we just had to work harder to beat the competitive teams in our conference. We lost to Princeton, that just made us know we had to work harder.”
And from there, they will just see what happens.
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