THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180467
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 188 lines
One kicks the ball into a net.
Another hits the ball over a net.
A third cradles the ball within a net.
Angela Hucles, Mike Duquette and Drew McKnight have produced impressive results not just for Norfolk Academy, but nationally as elite athletes.
``We've had some fine athletes come through this school,'' said Dave
Trickler, in his 29th year as the Bulldogs' athletic director. ``But I really
can't remember having three of this caliber national athlete.'' Drew McKnight
For McKnight, it all started at the Final Four. The blistering pace, the
deft passing and the throngs of screaming fans are enough to fascinate any
kid.
McKnight was hooked. Shortly after attending his first Final Four, that's
lacrosse Final Four, he received a gift-wrapped stick that he put to good use
in his back yard.
``Except for the national championship, there's not many big crowds for
lacrosse,'' says McKnight sitting beside his gear on the bleachers of the
Norfolk Academy practice field. ``Nobody ever gets into lacrosse for fame.''
Maybe not, but McKnight could become the most accomplished lacrosse player
to hail from Hampton Roads. The Bulldogs' ace attacker and two-time
All-American signed early with the University of Virginia. Last July, he was
one of 26 players selected to the U.S. Men's Under-19 team that will travel to
Tokyo this summer to defend its title at the World Games.
``We watched Drew grow up,'' said Virginia lacrosse coach Dom Starsia, who
first noticed McKnight at one of his summer camps.
Starsia recruits by evaluating athletic ability, stick skills and what he
calls ``lacrosse IQ'' or the ability to anticipate the game at the elite
level.
````He's a complete player,'' Starsia said.
McKnight's first taste of competitive lacrosse came in an informal summer
league on a soccer field at Bay Colony. He went on to start for the varsity
team in eighth grade for the Bulldogs. Two years later, McKnight realized he
could probably play at the college level, but was surprised by the stacks of
mail he received after making the Under-19 team. North Carolina, Brown and
Duke were all prospects, and he visited Princeton.
But Virginia became the easy choice for McKnight, who is undecided on a
major. Starsia is a coach he admires, with a style similar to Norfolk Academy
coach Tom Duquette's, entrusting his players to make decisions in the big
games.
``He was recruiting me before I made the U.S. team,'' McKnight said. ``I
appreciated that. Some of the other guys hadn't seen me play, and they were
calling me, which I took with a grain of salt, because my name was on a
list.''
It's befitting that McKnight will head to the university that is the site
of the most exciting game he watched. The Final Four two years ago in
Charlottesville. Virginia-Syracuse.
``Virginia was down 12-7, and they came back and won in overtime with
30,000 fans screaming,'' McKnight said. ``The whole thing looked pretty
cool.''
Thinking out loud, he adds, ``Actually the guy who won the game was a
freshman.''
Could that be him in another year?
Cracking the slightest of smiles, he says, ``I hope so.''
Angela Hucles
Make no mistake, Hucles is definitely goal-oriented. At 17, she boasts
enough accomplishments to fill a resume. Class prez her senior year. Bound for
the University of Virginia to study pre-medicine. An Umbro and Parade
All-American in soccer.
Not to mention the goals she has racked up for the Bulldogs - 164 in her
career - more than any girl on any soccer field in Virginia history.
``I don't understand where they all came from sometimes,'' says Hucles,
wearing a tiny soccer ball pendant around her neck. ``In the past, we've
beaten teams 5-0, 6-0. But I hear from some other people, not in this area,
that have scored a lot of goals, too. I guess it's like a challenge to keep up
with the better players.''
She doesn't remember her first goal - on the field, that is. She's had
other goals since subbing soccer for swimming as a 7-year-old. Back then, she
had to prove herself against the boys in her neighborhood and on her select
traveling team that she played on for four years. A sweeper from the start,
she moved to forward upon joining the Bulldogs' varsity as a seventh-grader.
``I never thought about how young I really was,'' she says. ``Physically I
could see a big difference from me being the seventh-grader and the
seniors.''
But if there were differences on the field, Hucles had the edge. So much
speed. So much finesse. By eighth grade, she started.
``She has a vision of the field and the goal that you can't teach people,''
says Cox coach Terri Sawyer. ``Technically she can execute faster than most
girls. She just has a natural gift.''
Hucles credits the various levels of competition she's faced with helping
her to outsmart defenders. Opponents routinely double- and triple-team her,
but Hucles keeps piling up goals - and assists. Her 95 career assists tie her
for sixth nationally.
Admittedly, she plays better with a bit of anger.
``If I'm not playing well, if I'm getting knocked around, I tend to get
more physical, especially if they're playing dirty,'' she says. ``It's one
thing if you're playing physical and it's within the rules. It's another to
play dirty. You find more dirty players when they're not as skilled in
something else.''
Hucles says the mental aspect of the game remains a challenge. She weathers
occasional lapses and is quick to chastise herself for not scoring when
opportunities arise. Bulldogs coach Kevin Sims blames the clumpy Norfolk
Academy field for Hucles' early season stats - 14 goals and six assists in
nine games, slightly below her average.
When frustrated, she often recalls something good she did in her last game
or she'll think back to the kind of soccer she played as a member of
Virginia's Olympic Development Team last summer. Playing for the Region I
(East) squad, she scored three of her gold-medal winning team's five goals and
assisted on another in four games at the National ODP Tournament in Boca
Raton, Fla.
``My best soccer,'' she says.
Hucles will compete for the Under-19 ODP regional team this summer. And
she'll continue her tear on Virginia scoring records this fall for the
Cavaliers, who ended last season ranked 10th nationally.
Her long-range goals include being on the U.S. national team, like her idol
Mia Hamm.
``Pretty soccer,'' she says of Hamm's game.
Top priority though is to keep soccer fun - otherwise, she says, it's
hardly worthwhile.
``When I went from playing with the boys to high school, I started getting
burned out,'' she says. ``My mom said to give it one more try and if things
didn't go well, to stop playing.''
She's never stopped and she keeps a poker face while adding, ``I think it
was a good decision.''
Mike Duquette
Duquette realized last spring that he had the power to be better than just
another city player from Virginia Beach. Competing in his first 14-and-under
national tournament in Aiken, S.C., he routed the top seed in the second round
and upset the fifth and seventh seeds before falling in the final.
``He just crushes the ball,'' his coach, Bobby Delgado, say.
Delgado, a pro at Virginia Beach Tennis and Country Club, has taught for
more than 25 years and calls the ninth-grader the best athlete he's worked
with. ``He's got the whole package,'' he says. ``To be able to do what he's
done in such a short amount of time is remarkable.''
Not long ago, Duquette was watching brothers, Bryan and Chris on the court
while he bounced from sport to sport. But baseball, soccer and lacrosse soon
would be replaced by tennis, although he continues to play basketball for the
Bulldogs.
``I would like to be a pro,'' Duquette says. ``But a college scholarship
would be nice.''
Ranked fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Region in the 14s last year and ninth in
the 16s, Duquette placed in the top 24 at last season's Orange Bowl. In his
first two Mid-Atlantic 16s championships, he finished fifth and first. At last
week's Easter Bowl in Palm Springs, Calif., his first national tournament in
the 16s, he won his first two rounds.
His storied season in 1995 included surviving six match points to upset the
third seed at the Clay Court Nationals in July in Fort Lauderdale. In the
quarters, down 6-3, 5-3, 40-love to an undefeated Scott Lipsky, ranked third
nationally at the time, he pulled out the set and the match.
This year Duquette, ranked fifth in the Mid-Atlantic 16s and 3-0 for the
Bulldogs, faces bigger, stronger and faster competition.
``He's been able to overpower people from the backcourt,'' Delgado says.
``Now he must develop an all-court game and get a little more proficient at
the net.''
Duquette knows it. With a serve in the 105-mph range, volleying winners
from the net is only a matter of practice. Shorten the point, he tells
himself, instead of hitting two or three extra balls.
Those are tools he'll need when he travels to Nashville for the Clay Court
National 16s and to The Nationals in Kalamazoo, Mich., this year. They might
come in handy down the line, too.
``Whenever I watch a Grand Slam,'' he says, ``I imagine myself there. I
think how cool it would be to be at Centre Court at one of those places.''
He wasn't thinking that way before a week of impressive results in Aiken
last April. ``That made me realize, `Hey, I can play with these guys. The best
in the country.' ''
Now he's one of them.
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK Photos
The Virginian-Pilot
MIKE DUQUETTE
DREW MCKNIGHT
ANGELA HUCLES
KEYWORDS: PROFILE
by CNB