Coach Danyle Heilig encourages her squad and inset, the unstoppable Eastern Camden County Junior-Senior High School outfit

Unbeatable – Eastern Camden County Junior-Senior High School 

By Al Mattei

For six years, the girls hockey team at Eastern Camden County Junior-Senior High School, located in the town of Voorhees, New Jersey, USA (population 28,000), has been nothing short of invincible. 

Playing an attacking, athletic style of hockey uncommon among the roughly 1,850 secondary-school teams in the United States, the Vikings have compiled a record of 136 wins, two draws, and no defeats in their last 138 varsity matches leading into the 2005 season, which begins in mid-September. 

Eastern (as the school is commonly known) broke the previous American national record in 2003 for most the longest consecutive unbeaten streak of field hockey games, set in 1969 by The Casady School located near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

To understand the magnitude of the streak, consider that no team in New Jersey, a state with 222 scholastic teams in an area half the size of Holland, had won as many as 70 games in a row until Eastern surpassed that mark in 2001. 

Also consider the level of competition and tradition of the eight counties in the southern half of the state. South Jersey's hockey history can be traced back to the late 1900s, when two sisters petitioned the school board of Haddonfield (about five kilometers west of Voorhees) to allow girls to play the game at the school.

Since then, hockey has enjoyed a special place in the culture of South Jersey. Danyle Heilig, the head coach at Eastern, first experienced the depth of South Jersey tradition as a player. She attended nearby Moorestown as a youth, winning three state championships from 1988 to 1990. 

'South Jersey field hockey is considered one entity, and it is a very established area,' she says. 'You think of the traditions of some of the programs that have been around a long time.' 

Heilig went on to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 1994. 

'We had a great coach in Christy Morgan,' she says. 'My freshman year, when she started coaching, we knew she was going to turn the program around. My years at James Madison were some of the best years of my life.' 

After graduating from James Madison in the spring of 1995, Heilig was hired as a health and physical education teacher in Cherry Hill, a town a few kilometers south of her Moorestown home. She was also given the duty of coaching the athletics and cross-country teams. 

Two years later, she earned a reputation as a difference-maker in her first season coaching hockey. She took nearby Haddon Heights, a team which had won five matches in the previous three years, to the state quarterfinal round. 

A couple of months after the Haddon Heights hockey season ended, Heilig received a call about a health and physical education position at Eastern. 

'I applied and was hired as a teacher, and coached freshman lacrosse that spring,' she said. 'By the late spring, I was offered the field hockey position and a week later, the lacrosse position. A lot of it was timing.' 

Heilig was not only fortunate to have been given two varsity head coaching positions months after being hired, but also fortunate to have some extraordinarily talented players who were already attending Eastern, many of whom are products of large and athletic families where field hockey is seen as a family tradition.

Take, for instance, the Dawson sisters - Natalie, Sarah, Rachel, Meghan, Hannah, and Melanie. Natalie and Sarah have seen national team duty after playing collegiately at the University of Iowa. Rachel, at the University of North Carolina, was named the most outstanding player at the Pan American qualification tournament for the 2005 Junior World Cup. 

'They have a tremendous work ethic,' Heilig says. 'It's a family bond; when they come home, they pick up their sticks and go out and play. It's a determination for them to be great, to see each other succeed, and enjoy it. There's a deep love there within the family.' 

The rest are expected to do as well; Meghan earned a starting position for Eastern's state championship team in 2004, while Hannah has been a major contributor to the feeder team at Berlin Community School.

Another family making contributions to the Eastern legacy is the Walls family; mother Dottie played for Eastern in the 1970s, and daughters Ashley, Melissa, and Lauren Walls graduated in 2005. From their sixth-grade season at Berlin Community School through four years at Eastern, the triplets helped their teams to a combined record of 131 wins, two draws, and no defeats. 

'You don't find triplets that are as athletic as they are,' Heilig says. 'Like the Dawsons, they are tremendously athletic, and they are relentless, and they don't tire. They are so passionate and so competitive, it's almost scary.' 

In addition, Heilig has coached fullback Lori Hillman, who has also made the national team selection pool on numerous occasions, though has not earned a senior cap. 

'I went to 'A' Camp (for national team selection) and I felt like the proudest person to watch Lori, Rachel, and Sarah there,' Heilig says. 'I don't think I've ever felt as proud as I did when I watched them play together, knowing that they had gone their separate ways, but when they come together, they can read each other so well.' 

The players through the years have been more than receptive to Heilig's enthusiastic, high-intensity coaching. The Vikings' energetic style of play is a product of a drive that is evident from the moment pre-game warm-ups start. She pumps her fist when things go well, or when she wants to make a point to a player. She can be heard in a huddle, exhorting the team on to new lessons.

'What makes our team so good is that we teach what a lot of college teams are teaching,' Heilig says. 'I am all for teaching beyond what normal high-school kids are taught, and I'm not afraid to do that.'

Eastern has the luxury of getting players with a good foundation of skill and game experience from middle school.

'I feel strongly that part of the success is that the feeder programs have worked so closely with me,' Heilig says. 'You have Ed Kirkwood at Berlin, who, from the time the kids enter as elementary school students, is talking about hockey. By the time they enter fifth and sixth grade, when they can try out, they are foaming at the mouth for it. You have Joanne Kolojechick and Hope Allen at Gibbsboro, and the two of them do a tremendous job.'

Heilig is also not afraid to lay challenges in front of her team. She scheduled one of the best teams in the United States as part of the 2004 season. Emmaus High School of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, has won seven Pennsylvania high-school championships - more than any of the commonwealth's 303 teams. The match was made not only by convenience or competition, but necessity: very few teams are willing to schedule Eastern because of its high level of skill and athleticism. 

'It got to the point where I had to go to the (Pennsylvania) website after last year's tournament and looked up the state tournament brackets,' Heilig says. 'I called around and I was lucky to get Emmaus. And I was lucky to get them on the one Saturday that we had open.'

The teams played on 23 October 2004, before a large throng of supporters and observers. The Vikings fell behind by a goal by the 35th minute, but Eastern drew level three minutes later. The game was not decided until Ashley Walls put in a short corner five minutes from time. A reverse match is scheduled for 2005.

As evidenced by the crowd as well as its volume on game days, the town and school have embraced the team. On light poles overlooking the school's car park are banners proclaiming the success of the team. Flagstones leading into McAleer Stadium, the team's home ground, detail the team's run of six state championships. 

'It's something I've never, ever thought I would experience,' Heilig says. 'It's taken on a life of its own, between the kids, the parents, the administration, and the school, supporting us. It's a tradition now, and as much confidence as the streak gives them, I'm sure there's a bit of fear; nobody wants to be the first to lose.'