CRANBURY O’Grady one tough lady on the leadership front

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Significant graduation losses and transfers have forced the Princeton High School girls’ ice hockey team to lean more on its veteran players than ever.
   Six games into the season, they have delivered in a promising start that included a 1-0 win over The Hill School.
   ”They are showing great leadership,” said PHS head coach Jeff Schneider, whose team improved to 4-2 overall with a 7-4 win at Upland Country Day on Wednesday. “The four captains we have really show the difference that great leadership can mean to a team.”
   Elizabeth O’Grady first saw great leadership from the other side. The Cranbury resident and PHS captain was brand new to the game when she came out freshman year.
   ”Brainard Lake froze, so in seventh or eighth grade, I went out on it with three of my friends, all on figure skates,” recalled O’Grady, who along with defensemen Maddy Sturm and Cranbury’s Katie Carreno and Haley Andres, comprise Little Tigers quartet of captains. “We had a couple sticks that my mom had bought at garage sales and we played hockey. It was so much fun. All four of us joined the Princeton High team. Only two of us are left.”
   O’Grady stuck it out for the chance to become a team leader, like Carly Moseley was three years ago for her.
   ”She had enthusiasm,” O’Grady recalled. “When they told everyone to get a partner and pass with them, rather than go with one of her senior friends, she’d go with another person. I didn’t even know how to hold a hockey stick. She could help with everything. I thought then, I want to be a leader on the team. I want to be good at it.”
   O’Grady has developed into a steady defenseman. She assisted on the Little Tigers’ first goal and scored their third goal Wednesday to stake the team to a 3-1 lead, particularly important when Upland tied it with two early second-period goals.
   ”We didn’t play very well today, but I think we picked it up near the end,” O’Grady said “We ended up getting in more inexperienced players. It was more of a learning game. We used this game as a way to give newer players some experience.”
   Those new players are contributing early. Freshmen Keely Herring scored two goals in Wednesday’s win, as did junior Stephanie Miezin of Cranbury.
       All four of the Little Tigers’ captains this year began playing as freshmen. All have become integral players for PHS.
   ”It’s based on determination and effort,” Schneider said. “The girls that work at it, it shows.”
   It’s not work to those that love the game. All of the captains project a passion for the sport.
   Said O’Grady: “We know we’re privileged to have this opportunity. We don’t want this taken away from us. We want to show people we’re serious about it, and we are.”
   By looking at the Little Tigers early record, there’s no doubt about how serious they are.
   Especially those captains.