Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020037
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nine years ago, when he was headmaster at North Cross School, Hudnall begged, pushed and pretty much prodded Anne Jennings to coach field hockey at the school.
Jennings was hesitant.
Run around with a bunch of teen-age girls? Girls who don't know anything about the sport? With three girls at home, too?
But one of those three girls, her oldest daughter, Helene, was an eighth-grader at North Cross and eligible to start playing field hockey. Anne had played in her youth in Rhode Island and later at the Dumbarton College of the Holy Cross in Washington, D.C.
Hudnall and the Raiders needed her expertise, and eventually Jennings agreed to take over.
``He was always after me to take over the program,'' Anne said.
The first day was rough. She had a slew of eighth-graders who didn't know much about the game and young Helene who was self-conscious about her mother's every word.
``I told the kids at the end of practice that I would be their coach,'' Anne Jennings said. ``Then I said, `You are dismissed.' Well, Helene was embarrassed. She said, `You sound like a school teacher!'''
Helene wasn't just perturbed, she was prophetic. Since that first year with the team, Jennings has been the only field hockey teacher on the high school level in the Roanoke Valley. Although she says she may have coached her last game Friday against Carlisle School, Jennings also can say she was a chief architect of North Cross' success in the sport.
The Raiders have won the Blue Ridge Conference championship every year since 1989. They have sent a number of players to NCAA Division III programs. And even poor Helene came away better from the playing experience. She still ranks as North Cross' all-time scoring leader.
``She's the best coach,'' said Catey Thielecke, a senior defender for the Raiders. ``Sometimes it's hard to get our attention. A lot of coaches wouldn't put up with us. She's lots of fun.''
Jennings tries to make it fun, especially considering how much time North Cross has to spend on the road. The closest field hockey-playing school to the Roanoke Valley is Carlisle, in Martinsville. Next closest are three opponents in Charlottesville - Covenant School, Tandem School and Charlottesville High School. North Cross plays 12 or 13 games a season, so the team gets to know I-81 and I-64 almost as well as its classwork.
So which is more fun: the rides or the tussles at the end of the trips? According to senior defender Page Goodwin, the traveling's ``not that much fun.''
But the coach's youngest daughter, Mary, said, ``No, the trips are fun.''
``It depends on which bus we take,'' Goodwin said.
Some buses provide a smooth ride. Some, like one they took to Charlottesville a few weeks ago, do not. The Raiders were heading north on I-81 when one of the tires tore off completely and left them sitting on the side of the highway. Last year, a busted water pump left them in a similar spot.
``I hate riding,'' Thielecke said. ``I can't stand it.''
Jennings frequently is amazed when she hits the road on weekends and sees the sport thriving in towns similar to the Star City. Two weeks ago, she saw a large tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C., made up entirely of junior varsity public and private school teams. The Virginia High School League sponsors a field hockey championship, but you have to go east or north to find any of the schools that compete.
Roanoke College's team was ranked in the NCAA Division III Top 20 for most of this season, and Jennings also noted the current NCAA Division I champions reside just two hours up I-81 at James Madison University in Harrisonburg. ``That's sad that we don't have more field hockey around here,'' she said.
Despite the sad state of field hockey affairs locally, Jennings had nine seniors and 30 players in all on this year's squad. They have endured broken noses, black eyes and even a case or two of hyperventilation. But they've always stayed with it.
``The team feels special in a way,'' Jennings said, ``and I do think it has something to do with them being the only ones in the Valley who play.''
A few of Jennings' seniors will continue to play in college, with goalie Emily Manetta perhaps poised to become the Raiders' first alumna at the Division I level. They will leave the team along with their coach, whose daughter Mary, a forward, will graduate in the spring. Jennings hopes her assistant the past two years, Angie Luthy, a senior at Roanoke College, will be able to take over the program.
The current team's final game - and victory - came Friday. As she warmed up before the start, senior Emily Kennedy said, ``It's sad that it's our last game. It's depressing.''
But the future is not dim. North Cross' junior varsity scored its first goal Friday and earned its first victory.
Field hockey will live on at North Cross. Jennings hopes it also can grow elsewhere in the area.
by CNB