Of all the high school athletes I have met this year, there is none I like or respect more than Emily Powers.
Actually, that is too narrow a scope. In all my time as a sportswriter, Powers is in my personal pantheon. It is a very select group.
Powers, a two-year starting defender and captain for the Stamford High School field hockey team that has won back-to-back titles, was not the star, but with her combination of talent, intelligence, personality, attitude and insight, she is the paradigm of the idealism scholastic sports are supposed to represent.
Powers made a great first impression when I interviewed her following the Black Knights’ season-opener last fall. During the holidays, I was out with a group of friends and we were discussing athletes from the city. Powers’ name was brought up and someone asked me what I thought of her. I said she is the kind of person that any parent would want their son or daughter to be close friends with.
Now Powers is adding another chapter to what makes her so special. Yesterday she decided to join Stamford’s girls lacrosse team, which is in its second season as a JV program before becoming a varsity sport next year.
What’s the big deal? Powers has never played the sport before. She picked up a stick for the first time yesterday when she left school during a free period to buy one. She had her first lesson yesterday from 10-year-old Zach White, whose father, Jeremy, is the Stamford boys coach. Powers is Zach’s babysitter.
So why would someone with her resume and in the homestretch of senior year decide to pick up a new sport and play at the JV level rather than slide through her final days before graduation.
“Honestly, I can’t even tell you why,” Powers admitted. “I’m always in to trying something new. Even though it is my senior year, maybe I’ll play intramurals in college. Don’t knock something until you try it.”
Powers said that Laura Dembofsky, her field hockey teammate and close friend, suggested she join the lacrosse team. Powers has a commitment to a babysitting job for the first few weeks of the season, but Stamford’s coach, Gina Figluzzi, who is an assistant with the field hockey team, is permitting Powers to play three or four times a week until her schedule clears.
That is further testament to what others think of Powers.
When asked what position she is going to play, Powers said, “I don’t even know the names of all the positions. I don’t want to play defense because I did that in field hockey. Maybe offense.”
Asked how she will deal with the inevitable growing pains that are forthcoming, Powers gave a typical Powers answer. “I don’t plan to be good at it,” she said. “It’s my first year so I don’t believe I’ll be very good, but it would be nice to get good. I think I would be upset if I didn’t try it.”
In a previous entry I announced that there will be a new feature this spring in which I am going to have a male and female athlete, coach and parent contribute to the blog to offer greater insight into the world of high school sports. I was still trying to determine who the female athlete was going to be until Powers told me she is playing lacrosse.
Powers will now be one of my correspondents (the others will be announced in the next few days).
I can’t think of anyone better qualified for the job.
