Stick Power Brings Indoor Field Hockey to the Virginia Peninsula

From the Daily Press, Jan. 15, 2017 and Virginia Peninsula Sports (updated version), Jan. 23, 2017

One of the fastest growing outdoor sports on the Peninsula, field hockey has moved indoors for the winter, and hundreds of young women and men are busy showing off their skills as a new season broke ground earlier this month.

Properly named, the StickPower field hockey operation, headed by owner Carrie Moura, has been in existence for several years, but looks to make a breakthrough in the public eye with this season’s slate of activities. The six-game winter league season, which commenced on January 21, was pushed back for logistical reasons, but remains complimented by two editions of the Christopher Newport Indoor Tournament, which held its first event on December 17 at the Freeman Center. The second tourney took place on January 14, and was won by the Hawks Premier club.

The proceeds from both events will be used to finance the CNU field hockey team’s annual international trip.

Allie Hackbarth-Kerr is a 2015 alumnus of Christopher Newport and the Lady Captains field hockey team, and currently serves as the Director of Operations for StickPower. She is assisted by a coaching staff that includes four current CNU players, one Old Dominion player, and a Warwick High player, Sam Brady, who has competed at the National indoor tournament with a boys’ team. As Kerr reminds a reporter, “outside of the U.S., field hockey is a men’s sport, so we would love more boys to play the game.”

“I’m part coordinator and part recruiter and promoter,” says Kerr to a prospective parent while selling tourney t-shirts at the first event. “(Young ladies) will express interest in the program, and I’ll tell them about CNU – how there are 164 teams in Division III and CNU is consistently in the top 20 or 25. So, you want to come to CNU?”

However, StickPower is much more than a recruiting arm of the Captains program, easily evidenced by its drawing power. The program draws as many as 500 young women each year who are interested in “extra competition and extra training,” according to Kerr.

Although goals are not tallied for the regular season games, the players are encouraged to “up their game,” said Kerr. She added, “Not keeping score is not meant to give off an “everyone wins” vibe. We are here to educate and teach these athletes the intricacies and strategies of the game. Not only will their skill increase, but their mental understanding of the game should increase as well, which will aid them when we get back to outdoor (season).”

Yet, there is more to StickPower than simply playing field hockey.

“It’s about becoming a responsible adult,” says Kerr, who, as a newlywed at 23, has just made the transition herself. “I was in the best shape of my life when I played, but the program is also about developing a grownup mindset.  You are not the person who tells her boss that you can’t come to work today.”

A steady dose of playing time is part of the StickPower success equation. There are 20 teams in the league, but only eight or nine members on each team, of which six needs to be competing at any given time.

“We don’t have too many subs,” says Kerr.

Caroline Moniz and Lydia Ward are two long-time members of StickPower, which plays its games at “The Grove” inside of the St. Luke’s United Methodist Church facility in Yorktown.

Moniz is a member of the U-19 (age) team, and a junior who plays on the Jamestown High varsity squad. “I got started with StickPower after my freshman season ended, and I was looking for a way to play field hockey and improve my skills. What I like best about StickPower is the coaching staff. (They) work with us continually to improve our skills, but we also have a lot of fun.”

“Carrie (Moura) brought me in with my younger sister Chloe and made us feel welcome from the minute I met her,” says Ward, a member of the varsity team at Warwick. “The CNU players treat you like little sisters and really help you with the skills to play the game.”

Indoor field hockey is different from the traditional outdoor model. Aside from the smaller “field” dimensions, each team features five players and a goalie, while the sticks are shorter and thinner than the regulation outdoor models. At the CNU tournaments, three games take place simultaneously on adjacent courts with a single clock counting off the 25-minute game time. Twenty teams took part in the first tourney with the Menchville “Monarchs” (U-19) and “Panthers” from Richmond (U-16) winning the team age-group titles.

More information about the program, which includes year-round camps, clinics, and a summer league session, is located online at www.stickpowerfieldhockey.com.

“We are always accepting applications,” says Kerr.

Coach Shu's Last Stand -- Virginia Duals Feature

As seen in Daily Press - january 15, 2017

HAMPTON – He is known simply and respectfully as “Coach Shu.” For 44 years, Apprentice wrestling coach Bruce Shumaker has made an indelible mark on local wrestling, first as a head coach at Denbigh in 1973-74, and later through a career path which wound through stops at Natural Bridge, Mathews and Lafayette high schools, with a year squeezed in at VMI, before settling in Newport News with his current position in 2007.

On Friday night, Shumaker, who will be retiring after this season, made his last coaching trip to the Virginia Duals. His Builder team had a rocky start in the American College Division, losing to favored Kutztown State 39-6 in their opening match. They battled hard against Liberty University, a Division I team, in the first consolation match before dropping a 24-18 decision.

But the Builders gave their coach a proper Duals sendoff, defeating Central Florida 39-13 in the 7^th place match.

For most of the Central Florida match, Shumaker was in typical form. Seated in the fifth chair, Coach “Shu,” an unmistakable presence, with his bald head and bushy white handlebar moustache, stared downward toward his roster notes, which were balanced on a left leg that crossed over his right. With the team score tied at nine, and Bryson Woody deadlocked in his 157-lb. bout, he remained relatively motionless and suspended in deep thought, even as Woody, and then Chad Simmons (165) and Patrick Foxworth (174) won their bouts to open up a comfortable lead.

As a pair of Knight forfeits sealed the match for Apprentice, Shumaker finally broke his pose, rolling the roster into his hand which was quickly buried under a crossed arm. As the match ended, Shumaker reminded his wrestlers to “shake their hands,” and then went back to the corner of the mat to continue a conversation that had started before the final bout.

Former wrestler?

“No, that was Frank Lapoli (former Bethel coach). He was at Bethel when I was coaching at Denbigh. Back in the 70’s, Peninsula wrestling was something else. We had Bethel (1977, AAA), Tabb (1977, AA), Poquoson (1979-81, AA), and Menchville (1976, AAA), winning state championships.”

Lapoli was followed by a trio of grown men who wanted a picture with Shumaker. One of the men was Williamsburg attorney Tom Turbeville.

Former wrestler?

“No. I wrestled for Bethel when he was coaching at Denbigh.” Turbeville (Class of 1978) went on to describe the summer sessions which were overseen by Shumaker in the late 70’s. “He’s a great man and a great coach who has given a lot to wrestling and to a lot of young men,” a group that included Turbeville’s son at Lafayette.

Shumaker smiled while recalling the summer sessions.

“We had an open wrestling room at Denbigh during the summer. It was an All-Star group of guys – whoever showed up. They came from Menchville, Tabb, Ferguson. We’d instruct a little bit, but it was round-robin. We had a great time.”

It’s the family aspect of wrestling that Shumaker continued to reference while talking about his Duals coaching career.

“All of these people are connected. Nobody’s doing this for the big crowd. You have to be selfish to be a wrestler. That’s why people come back here. It’s where all the wrestlers go.”

As far as his own top Duals memories, the first involved his team, but took place before they had set foot on a Coliseum mat. “I have so much respect for this place. I remember the first year I brought Mathews. We had been invited (in the past), but I just wasn’t sure that we were good enough to be here.” Only Shumaker’s last four Mathews teams (of nine) competed at the Duals.

He was happy the first year that his team did compete. “I got to watch Iowa and Penn State wrestle against each other on Friday night. And then on Saturday, they had to wrestle again in a third-place match. That’s a wrestler’s dream.”

The second memory involved his current team. “My first year here (2008), we tied Millersville, which was a Division I school at the time. But we had more pins, which was the criteria (for tie-breakers), so we won.”

The season is not over for Shumaker. He is “really optimistic” about his current squad. “We have never had so much depth (27 wrestlers), or this much skill.” Upcoming events include the USCAA National Wrestling Invitational at Penn State. Shumaker hopes to recapture some past success at the USCAA tournament.

“We won it the first five years, but haven’t won since.” His final match will take place on March 9-11 at the NCWA (National Collegiate Wrestling Association) Nationals.

Shumaker promises to return to the Coliseum next year, even if it’s as a spectator.

“It’s where you want to be if you’re in wrestling – first class.”

LaPrade, Prata Suffering Growing Pains with Hokies Wrestling - However, the future still looks bright

Original version of article which appeared in the Daily Press - January 13, 2017

Joey Prata won two National Prep titles
at St. Christopher's High. He's hoping to
break into Virginia Tech's lineup, but a UCL
tear has put him on the redshirt list for
this year.

HAMPTON – B.C. LaPrade (’15) and Joey Prata (’16) were two of the Peninsula’s most successful lightweight wrestlers over their high school careers. At New Kent High, LaPrade was a two-time 3A state champion (138 and 145), while Prata, from Seaford, won two National Prep and VISAA titles at the 106 and 113-lb. weights while wrestling for St. Christopher’s in Richmond.

But as the pair of grapplers transition to the college level at fifth-ranked Virginia Tech, they are finding that the road to greatness is littered with obstacles. In a first-round matchup against Kent State, the two young Hokies were not on the mat, but hovering over Mat 2 from the third row of the mezzanine deck at Hampton Coliseum.

“It’s a big transition,” said LaPrade, emphasizing his third word, while Prata nodded and laughed in agreement. However, the pair, who competed in a combined dozen Duals competitions as middle and high school wrestlers, aim to work their way back down to the floor level at the Coliseum.

And they both know what it’s going to take to get there.

LaPrade was selected as the Daily Press All-Star Wrestler of the Year in 2015. Under coach Mike Faus, the Trojan enjoyed a stellar senior campaign, sporting a 52-1 record, while winning Conference 25, 3A East, and finally, 3A championships.

Almost two years after his final high school bout, LaPrade, competing in the 157-pound weight class, is still waiting to make his official debut in Blacksburg.

“The first year, I grey shirted,” said LaPrade, who enrolled in New River Community College, just ten minutes away from the Tech campus, for the 2015-16 academic year. The collegiate newbie studied by day, and practiced with his new coach Kevin Dresser, and the rest of the Tech squad at night.

This year, LaPrade is classified as a redshirt freshman. In his current status, he continues to work out with Dresser and the Hokies, but his wrestling is limited to events, such as last weekend’s Franklin and Marshall Invitational, where he must compete as an “unattached” athlete.

“He’s making progress,” said Dresser. “He has been a little up and down as a freshman, as to be expected.”

The Franklin and Marshall competition may have served as a watershed moment for LaPrade. “He had a good weekend,” said the Hokie coach, now in his 11^th season at the helm. LaPrade won his first three bouts over wrestlers from the host school, as well as Maryland and Old Dominion, with the final win being a 13-3 major decision. Brown’s Justin Standenmayer scored a 3-1 decision in LaPrade’s fourth match, and his day ended with a fall at 1:12, courtesy of Columbia’s Laurence Kosoy. However, the 3-2 record served as a quantifying indicator in his improvement as LaPrade aims to break into the starting lineup next year.

By comparison, Prata committed to Tech last spring and was immediately pegged by Hokie fans on social media as the heir apparent to the 125-pound slot currently occupied by undefeated (13-0) All-American Joey Dance.

Dresser doesn’t argue the point. “He’s a little undersized at 125, kind of small.” However, as 125 is the lowest weight class in college wrestling, it would, by default, become Prata’s ideal classification. With Dance graduating in the spring, the slot will be wide open this coming fall. Prata remains reserved on the opportunity. “If that’s how it ends up,” he answered when asked about his status as the next in line at 125.

Prata’s collegiate career got off to a less than auspicious start. In early November, at the Hokie Open, disaster struck as the four-time All-American tore his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) during a bout. Reconstruction of the UCL has a more common term – Tommy John surgery, named for the famed baseball pitcher who earned the distinction by becoming the first athlete to undergo the procedure, which involves replacing the injured UCL with a tendon from another part of the body.

According to Dresser, the recovery period for Prata should take “about six months.” Looking ahead, he added, “We didn’t get to see a lot of him because he got hurt. But, he’ll be in the mix here soon. What I see of him, I like.”

Before his injury, Prata did have one opportunity to slay the beast, squaring off against Dance in the Hokie intra-squad scrimmage, a bout won by Dance 15-5.

There is more to the college transition for the two. Asked about the hardest adjustment, LaPrade noted the “hand fighting and finishing shots,” while Prata spoke of the consistency and rigor of each practice.

As the two look ahead, they remain confident that success will follow for them in Dresser’s program, which has a 64-12 record (19-2 in ACC) over the past four seasons with two ACC championships and two ACC Dual championships.

“It’s a grind, but I love it,” says LaPrade. “I trust my training. That’s what the coaches always say.”

“They wouldn’t have recruited us into the system if they didn’t think we were good enough,” added Prata. “We might not be there right now, but we have to go out and keep doing our job.”