Jackson Liberty High School senior goalkeeper Karlie Baran has been ready for the upcoming field hockey season since shortly after last season ended in a double overtime state tournament loss to Notre Dame High School.
Only four players were graduated from last year’s team that finished 9-8-1, its third winning season in its five years. However, those graduated players include forward Courtney Titus, who led the team with 17 goals and will pursue a track and field career at Wagner University, and midfielder Amy Hickman, who is off to a college career in softball.
“We’ve had a really competitive summer with 60 players out — the most we’ve had. We’ve been training twice a week and playing in a summer league at Toms River [High School East], and some are playing on club teams,” said coach Kate Gibson, who began her third season when preseason practice started on Aug. 15. “We’re looking to build on last year.”
It starts with Baran, who had four shutouts last season. She played with the Jersey Intensity select travel program and with a national team from Puerto Rico — her family’s homeland — in a tournament in late-January in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she played every minute in goal as the team split four games against select teams.
Baran said she got the opportunity to play because one of her coaches at Jersey Intensity knows the Trinidad coach, who said the team from Puerto Rico needed a goalie.
She has verbally committed to William and Jefferson College.
“It’s a whole different game,” Baran said of her experience in Mexico. “It’s definitely more aggressive and the skill level is completely different, and I was playing against 18- to 20-year-olds. I thought I did pretty well for an international competition, and they told me they want me to come back.”
That aggressive style in international games suited Baran fine, as she said her style also is very aggressive.
“I don’t wait for the shot, but get out there and get the ball out of the circle as fast as I can,” Baran said. For the Jersey Intensity, Baran shared time in goal for all six games. The team finished in third place at 5-1 in a national showcase at Virginia Beach, Va. She will move up this fall on the Jersey Intensity under-19 team and play in tournaments in southern Florida during Thanksgiving and in Orlando, Fla., in February.
Baran said she is really eager for the high school season.
“Right now, things are going really good, especially for this year,” Baran said. “Everyone has worked really hard in the offseason. I’m really excited for this year.”
Morgan Koerber, a senior defender, is ready to do her part in supporting her goalie. She’s been working on improving her stick skills.
“We’ve been playing together since sixth grade,” said Koerber of Baran. “I’ve gotten to know her so good. She’s always back there to block shots. [She’s] such a great goalie who relieves everyone’s stress.”
Koerber said the team’s strength does not settle just into the defensive end.
“We should be really stronger on offense and on defense,” Koerber said, as the team prepares for its Sept. 13 opener against Manchester Township High School. It plays for the second year in the Shore Conference B South Division.
“We’re working on building an allaround team,” Gibson said. “With so many girls out, the summer has been super-competitive, which is great. We try to have fun in the summer and get down to business in the preseason, but the girls are really pushing themselves [already] with the numbers that are out.”
“The girls have been self-motivated, which is inspiring,” Gibson said. “You can tell they did a lot of stuff in June, and I want to see how far that takes them.”
Gibson said this team is becoming more proficient at passing the ball and building an attack from the back line for a counter attack rather than leaving the bulk of the scoring finishes to the stick work of the forwards.
“I love how they can have fun and turn it on to be competitive,” Gibson said. “They’re so supportive. They’ve learned to trust each other. We’ve had that in the past, but these kids have been growing together for so long. They’ve picked it up a step from last year.”
Gibson said she will look to juniors Oksana Reed, a defender who may play in the midfield, and Lexi Schiazza, a midfielder, as well as sophomores Gillian Vallaster, who can play in many areas of the field, and Tatiana Wytych, a midfielder.
Wytych also plays for Jersey Intensity.
“[She] was really outstanding and brings the team to a whole new level,” Gibson said about Wytych’s performance last year. “She has everything there to keep her a step ahead of preparing for the collegiate level. If you want to be competitive in high school field hockey, you have to have girls training on that level.”
Gibson also has been affiliated with Jersey Intensity since 2003.
She characterizes Reed and Schiazza as tough players.
“Oksana is a joy to watch and fun to coach, and now she’s developing as a leader,” Gibson said. “Lexi finished the season on a good note, and I hope she continues where she left off.”
Vallaster is new to the varsity team, but she has been one of its hardest workers.
“[She] has worked extremely hard over the summer,” Gibson said about Vallaster, “and it’s exciting to see where she’ll go. [She is] an example of what hard work can do.”
Depth will be the area of least concern for this season, as the tryouts include 20 sophomores, including many promising prospects.
“They’re pushing the kids who played and who almost played a little harder because the sophomores are right behind them skill-wise,” Gibson said. “We have a very athletic freshman class. It will be exciting to see how they do on that team, and some may be pulled up to varsity.”
Signe Lockwood coaches the freshman team.
When she played last season before graduating, Hickman said the team got along better than ever, and this year’s team also has shown good chemistry to Gibson, all the way down to the freshmen.
“Communication is good from the backs all the way to the forwards,” Koerber said, as she praised her teammates’ determination.