|
|
Vol. LXIII, No. 31
|
|
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
|
|
|
|
Vol. LXIII, No. 31
|
|
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
|
(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
ON THE RISE: Princeton University field hockey star Katie Reinprecht displays her dazzling stick skills in action last fall. Reinprecht, a rising sophomore who was named the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2008, recently made the U.S, national team. She is currently competing for the U.S. in the BDO Women’s Junior World Cup in Boston. |
It wasn’t love at first sight for Katie Reinprecht when it came to the game of field hockey.
As a second grader in North Wales, Pa., Reinprecht joined a field hockey league and lasted just one season.
“I didn’t like it,” said Reinprecht. “We played on grass and the ball kept getting caught. Plus, I was a soccer player.”
But with her mother coaching field hockey and her older sister, Sarah, emerging as a star, Reinprecht gave the game another try in fifth grade.
Greg Hughes got his start in coaching crew when Curtis Jordan took a chance on him.
After a potential job at his high school in Puget Sound fell through, 1996 Princeton University alum and star lightweight rower Hughes latched on as a volunteer coach at the Tiger boathouse with Jordan’s blessing.
When freshman heavyweight coach Mike Teti left Princeton in 1997 to coach the U.S. national team, Jordan tabbed Hughes to take the open spot.
It was the third and decisive game of the Princeton Recreation Department Summer Men’s Basketball League championship series and Shahid Abdul-Karim was sticking with his playoff routine.
“I have a ritual any time we play a final game,” said Abdul-Karim, a star guard for defending champion George’s Roasters and Ribs/Ivy Inn. “I watch a Michael Jordan tape and that gives me some inspiration.”
Hannah Matheson knows what it’s like to compete in big-time swimming meets, having taken part in the New Jersey Junior Olympics and the Eastern Age-Group finals.
Swimming year-round for the Eastern Express club, the 14-year-old Matheson thrives in the high-stakes atmosphere found in state and regional competitions.
But having started her swimming career eight summers ago by competing with the Community Park Bluefish, Matheson has a special place in her heart for the lower key brand of competition found in June and July.
Daniela Momo felt some jitters as she took the blocks for the Nassau Swim Club last week in the Division 2 Under-18 girls’ 100-meter individual medley final at the Princeton Area Swimming and Diving Association (PASDA) championship meet.
“I was a little scared; I am only 15 and some of the others were 17 or 18,” said Momo.
The rising Princeton High sophomore overcame her nerves and cruised to a solid win, clocking a time of 1:20.09, some 2.47 seconds better than runner-up Rachel McCabe of the Hopewell Valley Tennis and Swim Club.
For Momo, the victory was the product of focus she has developed swimming year-round for the Princeton Piranhas club.