Herbines combine to give Emmaus scoring punch
Sue Butz-Stavin would need some time to list all of the sister combinations that she has coached in her 44 autumns leading the Emmaus High School field hockey program. Her list would include All-Americans, Olympians, all-conference players and those just happy to wear the green and gold uniform in the team picture.
“We’ve always had quite a few siblings playing,” she said. “They’re there for support. They’re there for guidance and also for the love of a sister. The family values come with it. We seem to draw from a good set of people with values: good sportsmanship, good work habits.”
Emmaus (10-0 through last weekend) has two pairs of sisters on this year’s team: junior twins Mackenzie and Madison Bruns and junior Annika Herbine, who is paying with her sister, freshman Rachel, for the first time.
The Herbines have been among the area’s scoring leaders all season. Before Monday’s game at Hazleton, Rachel leads the area in scoring with 61 points on 23 goals and 15 assists. Annika has 12 goals and 11 assists for the Green Hornets, who have outscored opponents 108-3 so far.
Annika is a University of Iowa commit and will follow in the footsteps of former teammate Leah Zellner, who is a sophomore in Iowa City. Rachel has not gotten far into the college selection process, but it’s understandable, considering she is just finishing her first month of high school.
Rachel has fit in just fine in the Emmaus program so far, despite not completely knowing her way around the huge building that houses Emmaus High. “I still get lost [in the building],” she said. “I got lost the other day.”
The younger Herbine is not lost in front of the goal. Coming out of the Lower Macungie program, she said that she did not know where she might fit in Butz-Stavin’s system. As things turned out, she wound up as an attacking forward, where she frequently gets the ball and works with Annika, a starter on last year’s team that reached the PIAA Class 3A semifinals.
“I’ve never played with my sister before, so it’s fun,” Annika said. “We get mad at each other at times, but we play very well together. “
What kind of mad?
“Just sister stuff, yelling at each other,” she said.
The bad moments are temporary.
“She’s [Rachel] a teammate on the field,” Annika said. “Off the field, she’s my best friend.”
Rachel said that her success so far has been a little surprising.
“I didn’t expect to have that many goals,” she said. “I didn’t really know what position I was going to play. My teammates set me up a lot for a lot of goals.”
“I’m sure they’re very competitive with each other, but what I see from them on the field hockey field, they’ve been very congenial, working together,” Butz-Stavin said. “They both love the game of field hockey. They’re both pretty natural field hockey players.”
The Defense Never Rests: Northampton sr. M Lauren Schaller (3 goals, 5 assists) plays an integral part on both offense and defense corners. She is effective in recovery and support, according to K-Kids coach Carrie Saul.
Nazareth sr. Krista O’Grady is a “skilled player and good communicator, makes nice tackles and comes up with the ball defensively,” coach Marissa Rotz said.
Moravian Academy coach Wendy Sheetz credits jr. Paige Busch and soph. Sofia Cincera for excellent play on defense vs. Bangor and Southern Lehigh last week.
Notes: Bangor sophomore Kaylee Holland had eight goals in four games this week, including a hat trick in a 3-2 win over Palmerton. … Moravian Academy’s Darby DeCastro scored two important goals at Bangor (including the one to force overtime). … Southern Lehigh, Bangor, Parkland, Emmaus, Pocono Mountain East and Easton have already clinched District 11 playoff spots.