THE DYNASTIC DECADE

By Al Mattei
Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

The decade of the 2000s was one about championship streaks. Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) saw its streak of consecutive state championships snapped at nine in 2003. Sue Pusey won seven straight state championships as head coach of Pocomoke (Md.). Paula Doughty steered Skowhegan (Maine) to eight straight state championships. Diane Chapman cobbled together eight straight New England Preparaty Schools Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) championships for Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.).

But only one team, only one coach, ran the table for the entire decade.

The last on-field act that Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) field hockey coach Danyle Heilig performed after her Vikings played the last scholastic field hockey game of the decade, an 8-2 win over West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.), was -- what else? -- coach.

While the seniors were having their pictures taken with the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions trophy, she was huddled with the underclasswomen of the team, reinforcing what was needed for them to be able to obtain the same reward at the end of their senior seasons. Yep, she was coaching even after the end of the game.

That's the kind of coach that Danyle Heilig is, one who does not miss a chance to make a point to her players, whether it's about tactics, finishing, defense, or success.

For coaching her team to unmatched successes to cap off the 10th decade of American scholastic field hockey, she is the TopOfTheCircle.com Coach of the Decade for the decade of the 2000s.

The numbers that Heilig and the Viking varsity team are mind-boggling. In 11 seasons at Eastern, the team has won a state championship every season. Heilig, in 12 years of coaching (she started her coaching career at nearby Haddon Heights), has 275 victories, a number believed to be unmatched in Federation history for any 12-year span.

Heilig, her trusty assistant coaches, and a network of experienced feeder coaches at Gibbsboro Middle School, Berlin Community School, and Voorhees Middle School have helped transform giggly middle-schoolers into focused, athletic, and determined varsity field hockey players.

The varsity program has amassed a record of 239 wins, five draws, and seven defeats from 2000 to 2009. About the only time a field hockey program has ever been this dominant over an extended period of time was when Oklahoma City Casady (Okla.) went undefeated in 106 games played from from 1956 to 1969.

But consider that Casady never played the number of games that Eastern did over the course of a season. Artificial turf would not be invented until the 1970s, the game was played almost entirely on the ground (the goalkeepers didn't wear helmets back then), and Casady's role in the high-performance levels of American field hockey was extremely limited; no Oklahoma native shows up in the database of U.S. women's field hockey players dating back the last seven decades. Also, Casady never contested a state championship under the aegis of a state sanctioning body.

On the other hand, Eastern plays somewhere between 25 and 26 games a season. The team started playing on the turf of McAleer Stadium beginning in the fall of 2004, and Eastern has won 11 straight state championships in a postseason where one loss sends you home for the offseason. Too, Heilig has sent a number of players into the U.S. developmental system, including midfielder Rachel Dawson, who was a key cog in the 2008 Olympic team. Her older sister Sarah has been capped for Team USA, and Lori Hillman was in the U-21 system before leaving the high performance system to coach Gibbsboro.

And thanks to the Internet and her willingness to seek out stronger competition, Eastern has filled out its schedule with challenging non-league matches. The Vikings have played state powerhouses, preparatory schools, and even Heilig's alma mater, Moorestown (N.J.).

But Eastern's reputation as being willing to face any opposition started in 2004 when Emmaus (Pa.) agreed to play at McAleer Stadium. Three years later, Eastern started playing Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.). These two teams are two of Pennsylvania's best, headed by by NFHCA Hall-of-Fame coaches.

The nine games played against these two schools were challenging: Eastern has a 4-2 record against Emmaus, but is 0-for-3 against Wyoming Seminary. But go beyond the won-loss records; Emmaus and Wyoming Seminary won seven PIAA championships in the decade, including a sweep in 2001. The upshot of these interstate games is that all parties made themselves better going into the postseason.

Bear in mind that, in the entire decade of the 2000s, Eastern lost exactly one postseason game. However, that 2007 overtime loss came only after the team had won the state's Group IV championship. The loss occurred in a semifinal match in the second NJSIAA Tournament of Champions -- a tournament Heilig championed when it was created before the 2006 season.

Heilig's influence is more than just the institution of a unique field hockey championship. Her field hockey camp, Competitive Edge, has given its campers a taste of the Eastern experience. Countless teams in South Jersey and elsewhere are aspiring to be good enough to beat Eastern. More and more teams are dedicating themselves to offseason training, playing regular-season games on artificial competition surfaces, and emphasizing advanced tactics brought in from international systems of play.

As for now, however, the Vikings currently stand alone. They have set the bar extremely high for themselves, where nothing but winning is acceptable, from the head coach on down. They have created a brand of field hockey that had field hockey aficionados asking the same question at the end of the decade that they were asking at the beginning: "Can anybody beat Eastern?"

That, in and of itself, is an astounding accomplishment.