At Howell High School during a recent practice, Elissa Connell marched across the field and monitored her players.
“Legs straight! Stay on the line! Come on girls, one more!” shouted Howell’s field hockey coach.
The players followed every instruction. At 10 a.m., after two hours of practice on that day of Aug. 14, Connell blew her whistle and the players hustled over to midfield.
After Connell’s short speech, the players broke the huddle and jogged away, still on the balls of their feet.
The Rebels were precise and energetic, following their coach’s lead. They looked like a winning program–and they hope to become one in 2018.
Howell opens the regular season Sept. 7 at Colts Neck High School. The Rebels went 1-11-2 in 2017. But the results never diminished the players’ enthusiasm.
“They are hard working, energetic, have great attitudes and are very resilient,” Connell said. “If we have a tough game, they bounce back quickly and don’t hold onto it for too long, which is important.”
The losses never hurt the players’ commitment to the program, either. Connell has nine seniors back for 2018.
The seniors even led players-only practices all summer. Howell practiced twice a week before official practices started Aug. 13.
“We know Connell’s drills, since we’ve been on varsity for three years,” said senior defender Jenna Manfre. “We wanted to get the younger girls used to everything.”
“We couldn’t go as fast because we didn’t have separate coaches to help everyone,” said senior defender Megan Reilly. “But we’d still do the same routine. Warmup lap, stretching, go for a run, drills, then shooting.”
The senior defenders, Manfre, Reilly and Abigail Jannarone, organized shooting and passing drills. As experienced defenders, they wanted to teach their teammates how to beat a good backline.
Howell, with Manfre, Reilly and Jannarone, was a pretty good defensive team last fall. It just struggled to score goals.
A new triangle defensive alignment, with one defender in front, two on the sides and one in back, should help generate offense. The Rebels will trap the ball and try to force turnovers. Then they will pass the ball upfield to attackers in space.
“We have to get the ball up there and score some goals,” Jannarone said. “We are trying to be a strong force on defense to keep the morale up and give everyone opportunities to score.”
The defenders, though, can only do so much. Howell’s forwards need to finish those fast breaks. Connell said the Rebels have two forwards, Olivia Manghisi and Adrianna D’Addario, with “some speed.”
“And they both have an element of feistiness that I really like,” Connell said. “They are just gritty players.”
They are a lot like Howell’s defenders, and the Rebels in general.
Howell will work hard and compete in 2018. But will it win? That’s the question.
“Our defense and goalkeeping will keep us in games,” Connell said. “I’m hoping our offense kicks it up a gear and can score some goals so we can win some games.”
