(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: NEW VOICE: Princeton Day School’s new field hockey head coach, Heather Schnepf, shouts out encouragement to her players in a game earlier this season. Schnepf, a former All-American at Iowa, likes the progress she is seeing from her young team this fall. The Panthers have gone 2-1-1 in their last four games after a 1-5 start.

With New Head Coach Schnepf Showing Fire, Youthful PDS Field Hockey Making Progress

Bill Alden

The wind was howling and the Princeton Day School field hockey team trailed undefeated Lawrenceville by five goals early in the second half last Wednesday evening.

The chilly night and the lopsided score, though, did nothing to snuff out the fire displayed by PDS head coach Heather Schnepf.

The first-year mentor waved her arms to get her players in the right position and yelled out encouragement to reward good plays.

Although the Big Red pulled away to a 7-0 win, Schnepf saw plenty of positives as she assessed her young team’s effort.

“They did some very nice things, you can see their thought process is at the next level,” said Schnepf, whose roster is laden with freshmen and sophomores.

“It is just now the execution of doing it. They are doing more advanced skills which is great. We have come a long way since August.”

In order for PDS to become more advanced, its players would do well to take a page out of Lawrenceville’s book.

“When you watch Lawrenceville, you see their desire, their passion,” said Schnepf, 25, a two-time All-American during her college field hockey career at the University of Iowa.

“They have great fundamental skills. It is something that these girls can watch and put into their own game. They are a great team. It is a very successful program and if PDS wants to be at that level, we have to use them as an example.”

Although PDS was outclassed by Lawrenceville last week, Schnepf believes the program is headed in the right direction.

“We are making a lot of progress; it may not show in our record or the scores of some of the games,” said Schnepf, whose club rebounded from the setback to edge WW/P-S 3-2 in overtime last Friday to move to 3-6-1 on the season.

“They are definitely more advanced in where they had been in the past in terms of setting up plays, understanding the game, and stick skills.”

Schnepf has been impressed with the individual skills exhibited by many of her players.

“The Jenkins sisters (Sydney and Andrea) have done very well,” said Schnepf, whose team plays at Stuart Country Day on October 15 before starting competition in the Mercer County Tournament on October 17.

“They are very skilled and just beautiful players to watch. Courtney Klein and Carly Ozarowski have done excellently. Our varsity keepers, Kate Reynolds and Lucy Marquez, are both new and they are holding their own.”

As Schnepf adjusts to her new role, she is getting a charge out of things. “I love my team, the girls are awesome,” said Schnepf, who was an assistant coach with the Drexel University program last season.

“I have really enjoyed getting to know them. I have a great staff and great support from the athletic department. It is different coming from college and coming down to high school. I like the challenge; I think it is good for me.”

With the county tournament and the state Prep tourney on the horizon, Schnepf is looking for her team to rise to the challenge.

“Our focus just needs to be on ourselves and our desire to play this game,” asserted Schnepf.

“We need to have aggressiveness where we want to get the ball into the net and do anything we can to get it up there. That’s what we really need to focus on.”

As Schnepf displayed last Wednesday evening, she isn’t about to lose her focus no matter what the circumstances are.

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