A game I’ve been waiting for for years
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- October
- 15
Ever since Hackley starting crushing the Fieldstons, Trinitys, and Daltons of the world three years ago I’ve been curious about how the Hornets would fare against Section 1. On one hand its got a competitive advantage because, as a private school, it can recruit. On the other, its a top academic school (which, incidentally, has the feel of a college campus) that probably doesn’t chase athletes who can’t meet strict grade requirements. By student body alone it’s the size of a Class A school. When they were at their best, when Sarah Walmsley was scoring 30 goals and they were destroying everyone 5-0, I had them as one of the five best in the LoHud. Other than North Rockland, and maybe Amanda Arcuri’s Clarkstown South team, I didn’t see a team they wouldn’t match up well against. This was reflected my naming Walmsley as a two-time Westchester/Putnam player of the year.
There was no surefire way to measure them because they never played Section 1 schools. The year before their first NYSAIS state championship, 2003, they took on a 4-14 Nyack club and beat them easily. Not much there. In 2005 they scheduled Yorktown but the game got canceled. Same with Greeley in 2006  a real pity. Greeley was very good and would have been a powerful test. I’d heard that public schools resented the privates for recruiting their kids and didn’t want to give them recognition or legitimacy by scheduling them. I’m not singling out Greeley and Yorktown here, who probably canceled because they needed to make up league games. So Hackley, 61-1-2 since 2004, just kept bullying lesser league opponents without challenges from their county neighbors.
Until this year, when Ursuline stepped up to the plate. As the date got closer and it became clearer the game wouldn’t be canceled, I got excited to see Hackley finally face a Section 1 school. I wasn’t disappointed. This was as even a contest as could be for 59 minutes. Really anybody’s game. If Ursuline, a historically good program but not having a vintage year, could hand the Hornets their first loss, it would hurt their case as a big-time program. However, Hackley seized control with three goals in 7:20 to put the Koalas away 3-1.
Katie Philpott had two of them, just her second and third of the season. They were huge considering leading scorer Daryl Steiger was out. Coach Julianne Puente wouldn’t reveal the source of her illness. Philpott thought it was a hernia but wasn’t certain.
Ranking Section 1 off the top of my head, I’d put Ursuline in the 14-17 range. If Hackley can win without its leading scorer, that puts it at least in the top 15. You can see if it cracks the top 10 tomorrow in my weekly rankings.
Ursuline coach Malcolm Brown wasn’t exactly impressed. When asked how Hackley compares to other teams he’s faced he responded thusly: “They would get killed by the AA schools. They’re not a good technical playing team in terms of putting it on the ground. They just kick it over the top and run after it.” Brown is a soccer fiend and I’d never question his evaluation of anything. However, it should be noted that he came across as VERY disappointed and may have sounded harsher than he intended.
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 8:23 pm by Jake Thomases. 
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Another view on a few of your comments. Firstly, while Hackley can recruit, it does not for girls soccer and there is not a single girl on the Hackley team that was recruited to play the sport. While having an excellent soccer program may attract athletic players, everyone attends for the academics and not necessarily the soccer. Ursuline, on the other hand does do a bit of recruiting.
Section 1 schools want to preserve their records for sectional seedings and do not want a loss to a private school to get in the way. Hackley proved yesterday they are hardly a pushover that might enhance a Section 1’s school victory column.
Onto the game, first I need to point out that both sets of parents and the players on the field were totally respectful of one another. Parents were well mannered and the play on the field did not dissolve into a shoving match often seen in High School soccer. Very few fouls called in the game and no cards shown.
The first half was fairly even, neither side tested the opposing keeper and the defense for both sides was solid. Hackley did break a player through toward the end of the half who was fouled in the box, but the Hackley freshman missed the PK.
Hackley began to take a bit of control in the second half, perhaps wanting it a bit more. Putting the pressure on, they scored twice, both times on loose balls that could not be controlled by the Ursuline keeper. The third goal put the nail in the coffin, yet Ursuline kept up their game. Late in the game, they sprang a key player through, but the Hackley keeper stopped the mini-breakaway and the rebound. A ball chipped toward the goal while she was on the ground hit a Hackley defender in the elbow and resulted in a PK. It was converted by an Ursuline forward who oddly enough is a club soccer teamate of the Hackley freshman who missed the PK earlier. By this time, the Ursuline coach had parked himself, alone, on a bench, 15 feet away from the rest of his players, looking none too happy about their showing for the day.
In total, the Hackley keeper only registered 5 saves; its hard to not realize they were able to shut down the Ursuline attack.
Now, onto the post game comment by the Ursuline coach, who is indeed a respected coach and a member of the Club ODP coaching staff. First, why diss a team? If you can’t say something nice, maybe next time don’t bother with a comment. Second, its High School ball. Every team, regardless of their Section, plays a verison of kick and run. More accurately, its lets kick it to our club players and see if they can score. Lets face it, the Ursuline player that made the PK and was coming off a 5 goal game, is a player on a 3 time state cup winning club team.
The end: in mid-field after the game, the two players who took the PKs for Hackley and Ursuline, laughing and joking with each other; the Ursuline player saying they want a re-match. Will the AD and Coach feel the same?
Coach Brown should look at the sports gallery photos from Frank Beccara. Who controlled the game ? I see more Hackley players with the ball than Ursuline. His opinions should be kept internally. His team tied a Section 1 team, Mamaroneck, where does that put Hackley? Hackley played exceptional defense and had more goals and chances at scoring. He is just bitter because with all his tactical drills, he forgot to teach that you have to put the ball in the goal and stop the opponents from scoring of which Hackley did better than Ursuline. Stop griping Malcolm, your players didn’t and they showed better sportmanship than you. The pictures don’t lie.
If Hackley recruits girls for athletics, it is news to me!
As a Hackley parent, I want to thank the Ursuline girls, their parents and their coaches for coming to Hackley. Ursuline didn’t have to do it and as Coach Puente pointed out, most other Section 1 schools have refused to do it. It was great for our team to play a challenging game against another good team. I hope Ursuline and Hackley will make it a point to get on each other’s soccer schedules in the future.
By the way, I don’t understand the relevance of how Hackley would do against Class AA schools, schools that are 2 and 3 times the size of Hackley.
Hackley has under 400 students in its upper school, so there are less than 200 girls. (By contrast, Ursuline has almost 1,000 girls in its high school). If Hackley were to play in the NY State tournament, wouldn’t it be playing against schools like Bronxville HS, which is Class B or C? Seems to me that’s the relevant set of schools for comparison.
Hackley does not recruit athletes. My children have been at Hackley for years, and have played multiple sports, and I can assure you there are no athletic recruits in the bunch. It’s one of those urban myths that constantly pop up on web forums.
Hackley is not the size of a Class A school. There are approximately 90 students in each grade.
It is really too bad that other Section 1 teams won’t put Hackley girls soccer on their schedule. I think John above is correct in his assessment as to why public schools aren’t too open to this idea. In some other sports, Hackley does play local public schools and they are always good competitive contests.
We just want to say thank you for all of the support. It was a tough game, yet the team managed to pull through in the end. Thank you to Ursuline for agreeing to give HGVS a challenge. The girls were taken aback at the Coach’s comment about the game. It’s just high school soccer. The teams truly appeared equally matched. If that is how the team succeeded (by kicking it over), maybe he should try similar tactics. Clearly, it worked. As tremendous supporters, we really appreciate all the external support and praise from the girls’ parents, their teachers, their friends, and most importantly the Journal News. Hope to see new faces and fans at their other games! GO HGVS!
It is pathetic how many blog entries I have seen written by parents of girls on hackley, ursuline and lourdes teams all saying the same thing—-”WE DON’T RECRUIT!!!” You might as well stop saying it, because nobody believes you.
I am sure Hackley has a decent enough team, but beating Ursuline is nothing to write home about.
I applaud Coach Brown’s comments. He was just being honest. Give the guy a break.
I think you would rate a high school team in the top 10 rankings if they played 10 year old girls and won every game 10-0. Records are meaningless. You must look at the teams they play and the leagues they are in. Just like the top scorers in the section. Although they are good players they would certainly not get 20 – 30 goals against division 1 teams like Arlington 11-2. East fishkill 12-1, Ketchum, Mahopac, Carmel. These 5 teams have to play each other 2 times each. I would love to see your top ten play those teams 2 times each. OR MAYBE YOU JUST DON’T WANT TO GIVE ATTENTION to WAPPINGERS/HOPEWELL BECAUSE IT IS OUT OF YOUR CIRCULATION AREA. East Fiskill, Arlington, Ketchum and Mahopac would beat anyone in your top ten.
Enough Already—Any time, in any sport, if the losing coach says something snarky about the quality of the winning team he sounds foolish. Maybe it is true that Hackley would “get killed” by Class AA teams given that most of them are 3 times bigger, but so what. If what I read in the paper today is right, kicking it over the top was good enough to beat Ursuline decisively, no?
Johnny Duke—newsflash: the Journal News is a business and it covers high school sports so that people living in its coverage area will buy the newspaper. “East Fishkill”, wherever that is, may have an amazing soccer team, I’ll take your word for it, but who in Westchester County is going to buy a Journal News to read about them?
As a coach and a fan of sports you should never put another team down, no matter what the circumstances. I was at the game and it was a great game to watch, both parents and players were respectful to each other. Why can’t we leave this on the field, why must we find something wrong if “your team” does not win? If you claim teams recruit where are your facts? I happen to have have coached at both schools and know for a fact of the 21 players on the Hackley team 15 have been there since middle school as well as the grammer school and of the remaing 6, there main sports are softball, basketball and lacrosse, doesn’t seem like recruiting to me. Ursuline has built a great reputation for student athletes and that reputation speaks for itself. You too can go to either of these schools if you are willing to pay!! Stop your complaining and just let the kids play!
Sports Fan,
Nobody is complaining about the recruiting. Don’t be so defensive. I just think it is about time that somebody admitted it goes on. The funny thing is that, in spite of the recruiting, the public schools continue to beat the private schools on a regular basis. And by the way, why would anyone want to send their kids to a private school in westchester when the public schools are so damn good?
Enough Already, did you read what Sports Fan wrote? Most of the Hackley team has been at Hackley since elementary school. Were they recruited in third grade based on their play in AYSO? They must have really stood out in first grade swarm ball soccer. If you have evidence that recruiting takes place (who does it? where and when?), spill the beans. A number of us would be truly interested to hear your evidence.
Publics recruit too
Lets not be foolish and asume Public schools dont recruit. Moving in with “family” , fake home addresses, moving Senior year 5 miles to be on the Best team around. DOn’t deny it Public schools have shady transfers during 9—12, and even people who move to areas jusrt for the athl;etic programs. Look at North Rockland HS,