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FLORENCE: Teen shatters national record

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
   FLORENCE — Resident Lexi Smith broke the longstanding national field hockey record of 174 career goals in October — earning her 175th goal Oct. 9.
   The Florence Memorial senior ended her high school field hockey career — she kept on keepin’ on — and earned 16 additional goals since breaking the national record.
   Monday afternoon, Nov. 5, Lexi’s scholastic field hockey career came to a close after Florence Memorial lost 2-1 to Plumsted New Egypt of Maryland in second-round state tournament game.
   Gina Carey-Smith, head field hockey coach at Florence Memorial and Lexi’s mother, discussed her daughter’s career with the Register-News on Oct. 28.
   ”I have been coaching Lexi since she was able to hold a field hockey stick,” said Coach Carey-Smith. “It hasn’t always been ice cream with jimmies, but in the end, it was of the most challenging yet rewarding challenges I have accomplished. In Lexi’s defense, I am not the easiest Coach to play for.”
   Lexi played a center forward for the team.
   She is still working on getting use to the idea that she has broken the national field hockey record.
   ”To be honest, it kind of hasn’t hit me yet,” Lexi told the Register-News on Oct. 28. “It’s been a couple of weeks but it seems unrealistic I guess you could say.”
   ”It’s such a crazy goal and to think that I actually got to reach it and break it is kind of hard to believe,” Lexi said.
   ”I told her do you realize what you have accomplished,” Coach Carey-Smith responded to her daughter. “Regardless if it gets broken in a year or two years or three years — you broke a 28-year record.”
   ”When I was a freshman and I scored 44 goals, it seemed like a realistic goal but even then probably till half way through last year around my 100th goal it seemed like it was a realistic goal to aim for,” Lexi said.
   ”The best part about all of it was getting to hug my mom after the play,” Lexi said. “Not many kids get to do that. The fact that I got to break the national record and do that was pretty special. That was probably the best moment of all of it.”
   Lexi set the national record when she scored her 175th career goal during a game against Riverside High.
   Coach Carey-Smith said “We had had the pleasure of meeting Sharon Landau (previous record holder) not too long ago. It was such a nice added touch to meet the person.”
   Coach Carey-Smith described the moment as “surreal” when she first met her at the Palmyra game where she tied with the State record of a 171 career goals.
   ”Sharon kept coming to the games to see Lexi break it (the record),” Coach Carey-Smith said. “She ended up breaking it at the Riverside game.”
   She said Lexi scored the first goal in the game at 21:19 and it was at that moment that she broke the national record with her 175th career goal.
   ”I never thought that would even be attainable,” Coach Carey-Smith said. “To be honest, Lexi is a fantastic center mid-fielder but when she came into my program I already had a great mid-fielder and I was going to have her for two more years so it was only fair to keep that kid in that position and basically from that point on I never moved her. Once and awhile, I do move her like if I do need more of a mid-field thrust I’ll switch my kids around.”
   ”She begged and begged me to start a field hockey rec program and I did it,” Coach Smith said.
   ”She has always had a lot of pressure because of me,” Coach Carey-Smith said. “She has kind of made a name for herself which I am more happy about that than anything that she has her own identity . . . she’s not my daughter, she’s Lexi Smith.”
   ”It’s a great sport, a difficult sport,” Coach Carey-Smith said. She has been a coach at Florence High School since 1995. She took over the field hockey program in 1998 and is now retiring.
   After high school, Lexi has plans to attend The College of New Jersey where she will continue to play field hockey.
   ”I am still with college lacrosse,” Coach Carey-Smith said, noting she coaches goal keepers at TCNJ. “I’m not giving that up. I coach lacrosse where Lexi is going.”
   According to Coach Carey-Smith, Lexi started playing the position of a forward on her club team, Jersey Intensity of Monmouth Beach.
   Lexi reflected back on her hockey career in high school and recalled beating New Egypt for the first time her freshman.
   ”That was one of the best feelings that I have ever experienced,” Lexi said.
   That, and breaking the national record.