Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 85

29E 111 Field Hockey Realignments paint new S.J. picture COURIER-POST, Wednesday, September 23, 1987 Field Hockey Forecast COLONIAL Haddonfltld has won two straight titles, but hat trick won't bo in tho making. Tht now champion? Lot's go with Codings-wood. Haddonlield and Haddon Township battlo lor second. OLYMPIC AMERICAN Perhaps the best race In South Jersey.

My pick is Pennsauken. No, Cherry Hill East. No, Cherry Hill West. No, Washington Township. If II definitely be one of those four.

OLYMPIC NATIONAL Another good race. Eastern has won five straight, so it's tough to go against them. Bishop Eustace and Camden Catholic always make a run at the title and this season won't bo any different. BURLCO LIBERTY Simple. Shawnee.

The Renegades will be explosive on offense. They play perhaps the toughest schedule in South Jersey and they still might not lose. Cherokee and Rancocas Valley will fight for second. BURLCO FREEDOM Equally as simple. Moorestown.

The Quakers have won five straight titles since loinlng the division in 1982. Make It six. Burlington Township Is talented, but not talented enough to unseat Quakers. TRI-COUNTY ROYAL Interesting, interesting race. Kingsway's move from the Classic Division and Pennsville's powerhouse presence make this a two-team fight to the wire.

Also watch out for Delsea. TRI-COUNTY CLASSIC With Kingsway gone, the race has really opened up. Gloucester appears to have tho most talent, but Pitman still has a lot of tradition. Glassboro also will be near the top of the pack. CAPE-ATLANTIC I MlllvillC Coach Claudia McCarthy thinks her team will repeat.

So do I. Cumberland always is in the race and that won't change one bit. Ocean City also could stay close. CAPE-ATLANTIC II St. Joseph has won five consecutive titles and there is absolutely no reason to believe they won't make it six.

Buena and Hammonton appear to be the biggest threats. BOB BROOKOVER By BOB BROOKOVER Of the Courier-Post Changes, changes, changes. Yes there are plenty of changes in field hockey this season, most of them dealing with teams in new divisions. The cause of all this chaos? The Olympic Conference, Tri-County League and Cape-Atlantic League all decided to realign at the end of the last school year. So let's review these changes.

Get your notebook and pen out, class is about to begin. We'll start with the Olympic Conference. Highland High School, previously an American Division school, has moved to the lower-enrollment National Division. Meanwhile, Overbrook and Triton have both moved from the National to the American Division. The Olympic Conference teams will all play each other once.

Previously, only games between divisional opponents counted in the standings. Now, the inter-division games also will count. There will still be two divisional champions and two all-star teams in the conference. "It was done basically at the request of the coaches," said Ginny Whitaker, the Cherry Hill school system athletic coordinator and vice president of the Olympic Conference. "We have 19 schools in the conference and four (Woodrow Wilson, Camden, Gloucester Township Tech and Pennsauken Tech) don't have field hockey teams, nor do they anticipate having teams.

"Most of the schools who were original members in the conference have some tradition with opponents and they wanted to keep it going. So we decided to try it for a two-year basis. We'll see how the ball bounces and then reevaluate it." Oh, one more thing. Gloucester Catholic, the team without the not compete. Fortunately, the Rams will have a squad that will play a limited schedule.

All right, do you have all that? If so, let's move on to the Tri-County League. The change here is small, but exciting. Kingsway High School has switched from the smaller enrollment Classic Division to the larger Royal Division. Penns Grove moved down, but the Red Devils don't have a field hockey program. The exciting part of the move is that it places Kingsway and Pennsville in the same division.

Kingsway won the Classic Division title last season, and Pennsville notched its fourth consecutive Royal Division championship. "It makes our division much more competitive," Pennsville Coach Carol Penn admitted. "But we always played them tough anyway." The Tri-County League will continue its format of having each team play one game against every team in the league with all games counting in the standings. Two leagues down, one to go. The change in the Cape-Atlantic League also is small.

Abse-gami has moved from the smaller enrollment Cape-Atlantic II to the bigger Cape-Atlantic while Bridgeton has done the exact opposite. No change has been made in the way divisional titles are decided. Cape-Atlantic League I and II teams will play each other twice with only those games counting in the standings. Now that we have all that out of the way, let's move to rule changes. They are as follows: The home team or tournament director will designate the official who is in charge of the game and will work the side of the field nearest the officials' table.

The 16-yard hit will be permitted anywhere within the field Veteran Cherry Hill East High School field hockey coach Sue Schooley instructs Debbie Harding on technique to use in striking the ball. field the last three seasons, will not be part of the National Division this season. The school wasn't sure if it could put a team together at the end of last season because of a lack of numbers. So athletic director Gerry Scharff told conference members his team would Attacker Linda DeFrates of Cherry Hill West chose not to attend school. Goalie Jackie Miller of Palmyra planned on going to Camden County College, but decided not to because of an injured left ankle.

Palmyra Coach Peggi Havens said Miller would enroll at Camden County this spring. Three members of the All-South Jersey team Sopha So of Pennsauken, Sharon Ashe of Gloucester and Patsy Curcicof Shawnee will be right where they were last season. Those three are all seniors this season and should give a lot of opposing coaches Excedrin headaches. Predictions: Shawnee will win the South Jersey Group 4 title and go on to win the state Group 4 title it deserved to win last year. The Renegades will also defend their Courier-Post Cup.

This team is loaded, folks. Eastern will win the South Jersey Group 3 championship that has eluded Coach Robin Altorfer the last three years. Collingswood will win the South Jersey Group 2 championship and Kingsway will capture the Group 1 title. bounded by the 16-yard markers, the sidelines and the goal line being defended. Unless state association rules determine otherwise, tournament games interrupted by events beyond the control of the responsible authority shall be completed as follows: 1.

If interrupted during the first half, the entire game shall be replayed; 2. If interrupted after the second half has begun, the game could be resumed at the point of interruption. An injured player who Is unable to begin play momentarily will be replaced by a teammate. Playing without a mouthpiece will result in a penalty corner for the opposing team. Curious as to what happened to last year's first-team All-South Jersey performers? Well, here's a look at where they are.

The Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year Stephanie Naticchia of Haddonfield and Bonnie Brown of Shawnee are both playing in the Ivy League, Naticchia at Princeton; Brown. at Yale. Halfback Susie Heuisler of Cherry Hill East is at Princeton, and sweeper Nancy Warrick of Pitman is at Boston University. Forwards Karen Hoysted of Moorestown and Traci DiMeo of Cumberland went to Penn State and Syracuse, respectively. mt: tirsi rouna or piay; NOV.

4 1 1 rr-Triritrh Haddonfield High School field hockey coach Judy Morgan keeps a careful eye on the passing of Nickie Leverick (right) to Paula Sturt. The Haddons are defending champs in the Colonial Conference. Please see MANY, Page 30 vuavnca otan Please see GILL. Page 35.