Things Looking Up for Cougar Field Hockey

For the first time in several years, the Cougar field hockey team enters the season with a real reason for optimism.

"I'm super positive. I think if we're going to do something, it has got to be this year for sure," said Columbia head coach Maggie Singler. "[The girls] are really fast, they're good at passing. …I think we will have a bunch of wins."

Firstly, the group is returning 13 seniors who have won a total of three games over the last two seasons - there's no place to go but up. Secondly, after a failed experiment in the Super Essex Conference last season, Union and Essex County have merged field hockey leagues in hopes of providing a more balanced conference.

"We have absolutely nothing to lose this year. We can only gain," Singler said.

So for the second straight season, the locals will be involved in a new conference, but this time, instead of playing the same seven team over and over again in conference and county tournament play, there are 17 teams to play, each one time. While top flight times like West Essex, Montclair, Oak Knoll and Summit are still peppered throughout the Columbia schedule, there are far more winnable contests this season.

"It definitely opens up the playing field," Singler said of the new conference. "It's kind of a trial and error thing for another year."

But perhaps the most promising thing about the Cougars this fall will be the fact that they can score. Last season the local girls lost five 1-0 games, tied three times and scored just seven goals in a 1-15-3 season. This preseason, they've tallied nine goals in four games, in which they've gone 3-1.

"I have a really fast offense and they really want it," Singler said. "I'm not saying they didn't want it last year, they're just a little more aggressive."

Coach Singler is absolutely ecstatic about her team's potential this season, especially having all of her scorers back from a season ago, a veteran in net and a team that has a good chance to be on the other side of a few of those 1-0 games.

The top returnees include keeper Sam Storch, left wing Maggie Richardson and senior forwards Haley Burniston and Jane Mousseau. Singler is also very excited about sophomore forward Nadia Pelham-Lacy, who the Cougar coach said has a chance to be a really good player this season.

"I just see drive, I just see aggressiveness that you just can't teach. She just has it," Singler said of Pelham-Lacy.

On the defensive side of the ball the Cougars lost all of its starters from a year ago, but a solid junior varsity season last fall has Singler thinking that the newcomers to the backline will step in just fine. She doesn't expect there to be any drop-off in the level of play.

The final upgrade came at the assistant coach position, with Lizzy Rolek stepping in as a former player at the University of Scranton and second team all conference Northern Hills Conference in 2005 for the Academy of St. Elizabeth High School field hockey team. Singler said that Rolek's recent knowledge of the game has already proven valuable and she expects that to continue.

For the first three weeks, there won't be too many landing spots in the schedule for the local girls. Arthur L. Johnson, Summit, Montclair, West Essex, Kent Place, Cranford and Oak Knoll were all playoff teams last season and most of the Columbia's early schedule this season. But if they can get through that stretch with a few wins, Sinlger said that they are targeting finishing at .500 for the first time since 2002, reaching the second round of the county championships and possibly breaking into the state playoffs.

"I don't even have words if that were to happen," Singler said. "I'd really like to leave a mark with this group of players."