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St. Luke's Field Hockey Season Preview
With a strong returning group and a number of new additions the St. Luke’s Varsity Field Hockey team is looking forward to the 2016 season and continuing the ‘rebuild’ they started last year.
After a couple of very tough seasons in 2013 and 2014, Head Coach Brinley Ehlers and Assistant Coach Anna Knechtel embarked on restoring the pride of St. Luke’s Field Hockey program and achieved this by winning more games than the previous two seasons combined.
Ehlers is hoping for an even better year this time around saying, “With this group we anticipate a better season than last fall and I expect us to be competitive with every team we play. I think we are looking good. Everyone has come back in good shape and we have a strong returning class as well as some good players coming up from our Middle School program.”
The Storm has four seniors and four juniors returning along with new sophomore GK, Emma Cropper, who Ehlers believes will be a great addition to the team. Cropper ‘19 will be working closely with the team’s new Assistant Coach Chris Phelps to continue her development. Phelps’ main focus will be to train the GK’s, bringing yet another dimension to the program.
The four returning seniors, Cameron Stonehouse, Cayley Stonehouse, Paige Lord and Claire Armstrong are also the team captains and, according to Ehlers, have helped develop a real family vibe within the program. She said, “The captain’s have taken a totally active role starting last spring all the way through. I really pride myself on camaraderie within the group and it’s so important to me that there is a real family feel. These girls are doing a tremendous job with that.”
It is these five girls who will really form the backbone of the team as four of them, Cropper ‘19 (GK), Lord ‘17 (CB), Cameron Stonehouse ‘17 (CM) and Cayley Stonehouse ‘17 (CF), line up through the middle of the field with Armstrong converting to either a forward or a wing this season.
Ehlers sees this as one of the team's strengths but also knows they have some things still to figure out, saying, “Our middle lines are strong but three of our four graduating seniors were forwards, so we definitely have holes to fill on the offensive line—but that will come.”
It is still going to be a very tough schedule for the Storm with the FAA providing three of New England’s powerhouses in Greenwich Academy, Rye Country Day and School of the Holy Child. Ehlers is hoping to make a strong challenge: “The FAA is extremely strong, between GA, Convent and Rye we have three of the strongest teams in WWNEPSA so, the fact we see them in league play, that obviously makes things tough. We also play a very heavy boarding school schedule but we anticipate being very competitive in WWNEPSA.”
Field Hockey started with a tough loss against Holy Child before a heartbreaking overtime loss to King. They bounced back well to a comfortable 5-0 win against John F Kennedy Catholic High Schoo
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
