August 16, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Magarity helps United States capture world championship
by TOM UTESCHER

Colleen Magarity on the attack for the U.S. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

PETERBOROUGH, ONTARIO - Just a few years ago, Colleen Magarity wasn’t sure if her athletic destiny would be realized on the basketball court or the lacrosse field. A 2007 Germantown Academy graduate who was also an accomplished soccer player in high school, Magarity decided to cast her lot with lacrosse, and last Saturday afternoon she was absolutely convinced she’d made the right choice.

A member of the United States Under-19 Lacrosse Team, Magarity was celebrating with her comrades in the stadium at Ontario’s Trent University, where they had just won the 2007 World Championship by routing Australia, 18-3, in the gold medal match that marked the conclusion of the eight-day, 11-nation event.

For the victorious U.S. Team the Canadian excursion had been, quite literally, a tour de force. In their 6-0 sweep, the Americans enjoyed a double-digit margin of victory each time out. Their final performance produced the most lopsided win in a gold medal game since the quadrennial U-19 world tourney was launched in 1995.

That year, Australia edged the Americans at Haverford College, 5-4. The U.S. defeated the Aussies for the title at the next two gatherings, winning 15-8 in Perth, Western Australia in 1999, and prevailing 21-8 in the 2003 final in Towson, Md.

In this year’s tourney Magarity finished sixth in total points for the U.S., with 13, shooting eight goals (sixth) and dealing five assists (tied for third).

“Everyone is amazing, across the board; that’s why we play so well,” she said. “We have such a team connection. There’s not just one or two stars, like in high school. Every team here is basically very athletic; I think our advantage is our stick skills. We can put the ball right where we need to, and we hardly ever drop a pass.”

The 5’4” midfielder clearly lived up to the expectations of U.S. Head Coach Wendy Kridel, who also led the U.S. to gold in 1999 and 2003.

“She brings smarts to the game that not too many players have,” pointed out the Yanks’ mentor. “I think it’s all of her basketball experience that helps her always know where to be and what to do. She reads the field phenomenally well as both an attacker and a defender. She truly is a midfielder; she plays equally well on either side of the ball.”

Magarity played basketball for highly successful teams at GA, and also won several national championships in AAU club competition. She took up club lacrosse in grade school prior to entering Germantown Academy in the ninth grade. Midway through her tenure with the Patriots, lacrosse became her primary sport, and she’s earned a scholarship to Northwestern University, which won its third straight NCAA championship this May.

At the World Championship, she actually played against one of her future teammates. Australia’s Hannah Nielsen, a middie from Adelaide, is already an established starter for the Wildcats. Another U.S.-Australia connection extended to an older generation. One of the Aussies’ most potent attackers, Hayley Sofarnos, is the daughter of five-time World Cup player Sue Sofarnos, who competed against former Springside School coaches Leslie Lane and Betsy Dougherty when they were members of the United States Team.

Though not known as one of the top gunners on the American side, Magarity nevertheless established herself as an offensive threat in the opening game of the tournament on August 4. Netting the United States’ first goal of the championship, she added three more to her total as the Americans erased England, 18-4.

Everything seemed to be falling nicely into place for the local stickster, but little more than a month before the start of the championships, her world had been in turmoil. Her father, local auto dealer Joe Magarity, visited his doctor to discover the source of some minor chest pain, and was quickly rerouted to the hospital to have quintuple-bypass heart surgery.

“It was a scary time for our whole family,” the younger Magarity related. “I had to go away to one of our last training weekends right as it was going on. I was going to stay home while he was having the surgery, but he wanted me to go.

“He was looking forward to this [tournament] so much,” she continued, “and it’s so great that he was able to come. He’s basically just been recovering at home and hasn’t been able to do much. This is the first chance that he’s been able to get out.”

In another opening day contest at the championship, Team Canada generated some patriotic fervor in the tourney environs by topping traditional power Australia, 11-8. Against the U.S. the following day, the Canadians opened the scoring and then gave ground, but still only trailed 4-7 at the half. The Yanks settled the issue by funneling in the first five goals of the second period, and came away with a 17-7 victory. Baldwin School’s Emma Hamm, formerly a Girls Inter-Ac League rival of Magarity’s, turned in a hat trick, while Josie Owen, who’d filled the net eight times in the U.S. opener, lifted her total to 12 goals and three assists.

Next up was Australia, which had managed just an 8-8 tie with England on the tournament’s second day. Once again, Magarity opened the scoring, striking a little over two minutes into the bout. America went up 3-0, then 6-1, and held an 8-3 advantage at the interlude. As round two got underway, the Aussies answered a pair of U.S. goals with three of their own, tightening the score to 10-6 with six minutes gone. After that, the U.S. defense slammed the door on the Koala crew, finishing the affair with an 8-0 run.

Having gone 3-0 in the strongest division, Pool A, the U.S. team took a day off, then reappeared in the quarterfinals as King Edward I, AKA “Hammer of the Scots.” Magarity recorded one goal and one assist in a 19-1 trituration of the thistle throng. The Americans tacked the first 12 goals on the board, and had 16 different players score by the end of the match. On the Scottish team, Germantown Friends was represented by assistant coach Martha Cornbrooks, a 1997 graduate of the local school who now lives and coaches in the U.K.

On Thursday, the national squads competing in Pool A (Australia, Canada, England, USA) enjoyed a day off, while consolation and crossover matches were played by members of Pool B (Japan, Scotland, Wales) and C (Czech Republic, Germany, Haudenosaunee, New Zealand).

Back in action on Friday, the Yanks made the initial rush downfield at the start of their semifinal against England, but when their first shot strayed wide, Laura Merrifield streaked back down the field and afforded the English a 1-0 lead. The Brits’ enthusiasm ebbed as the U.S. stacked up eight consecutive goals, and after that the teams traded points to end the half with a 9-2 count on the board.

Magarity opened the scoring in the second half, forging through a clump of defenders in the middle of the arc and releasing her shot while falling to the ground. England answered, but didn’t score again the rest of the way as the Americans accelerated to an 18-3 triumph. Magarity, who had assisted a strike by Hamm in the first half, also helped out on the final goal of the match.

In the gold medal match, the teams exchanged goals at the outset, then, in a ten-minute span, the Americans methodically fashioned a 6-1 advantage. A second successful shot for Australia drew three more from the Yanks, and at the half the count was 10-3. Not only did the Americans dominate the center draws, they applied a tight midfield ride that squeezed turnover after turnover out of the Platypus pack.

Emily Geary, a goalie from Radnor High School, entered the game at the start of the second stanza, and stoned the opposing attackers on the few good offensive opportunities they were able to muster. In one sequence, with the U.S. ahead 13-3, a feed from alongside the cage found the stick of an Australian attacker extended skywards in front of the cage. It looked to be a storybook quick-stick goal, but Geary foiled the plot.

The Aussies were unable to augment their first-half total, while the Americans netted eight goals in the second period, one of them scored by Hamm off an assist by Magarity. The time dwindled away with no surprises in store, just an ineluctable advance to the gold medal by a U.S. ensemble that executed as coolly and skillfully as Jean Rombaud. Owen, a Maryland native, registered five goals and one assist, and led the U.S. in scoring for the tournament as a whole, with 27 points (21g/6a).

After the tourney, Magarity planned to head to the Jersey shore for some well-deserved R & R. She’d have plenty of time to chill out and reflect on her Ontario experience, since Northwestern, with its trimester system, won’t convene classes until September 25.