MARATHON'S WINNING STREAK CULMINATES A DECADE OF DOMINANCE

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

Marathon, N.Y. sits on the banks of the Tioughnihoga River, about a half-hour north of the New York-Pennsylvania border along a stretch of Interstate 81 that winds its way just east of the Finger Lakes.

The town, population 1,107, is more known as a travelers' waystation, but since 1993, it has produced some of the most powerful field hockey players and teams in America.

The Olympians have, through November 2004, won 87 straight games, which was at the time the fourth-longest winning streak in National Federation history.

Oddly enough, though the win streak was built upon the labors of Division I athletes like Tiffany Marsh (University of Maryland) and Jessica Gogofsky (Ohio State), the most recent teams may not have been the best teams ever to wear the orange and black.

Those may have been teams from 1994 to 1996, when the team had perhaps its two most decorated stars: Carla Tagliente (University of Maryland) and Hilary Matson (Princeton).

According to Jamie Gogofsky, who won three straight championships with Marathon spanning the first 68 games of the streak, those teams set a very high standard.

"Every girl who grows up in Marathon wants to be the next Carla," Gogofsky says. "They want to go to an awesome D-1 school or play in the Olympics."

Oddly enough, those powerful teams actually managed to lose seven matches, but still won three state finals in Class D.

"It's about winning the state championship," says Funk, who has won a New York State-record six. "What comes with that is nice, but we want the state championship. The wins in a row come if you do get the championship. It's unbelievable."

"The first year, after winning about 15 games or so, we were like, 'Wow, we're 15-0; wouldn't it be great to keep winning and not losing?'" said Gogofsky. "We realized how much we needed to play defense, realizing how good it was not to have any losses."

That kind of single-mindedness is what has helped Marathon over the years; one day before winning the 2003 Class C title, Funk admitted that the team's focus on the state semifinal against East Rochester (N.Y.) was such that they didn't watched the other semifinal match.

"I didn't really watch North Salem that much," Funk said after the game. "I'm sure there are some people who can tell me something about them."

In that 2003 state Class C final, Marathon was taken to overtime for just the second time in three years, and eventually won on a golden goal.

The Marathon program has, over the past decade, been built on hard work and effective youth development.

"I started playing when I was 10 years old," Jessica Gogofsky says. "I think I had the first little stick ever made. It helps a lot, starting so young."

Marathon, being such a small town, also is able to keep the core of its field hockey team together through middle school rather than having its varsity being made up of players from sometimes two or three middle schools.

"We do so many things together, from such a young age, even if it's playing against each other in little scrimmages," Gogofsky says. "Once we get into competition, playing together, we do really well."

Marathon's current three-year streak of state championships contrasts greatly with the teams of the mid-90s. Whereas the earlier championships were exclusively in Class D (for the smallest schools), Marathon has had to play larger schools in the state tournament in 2002 and 2003 because New York eliminated Class D for field hockey after the 2001 season.

In addition, the 2003 team was not nearly as strong as many of its predecessors. Still, the Olympians were not only able to win a third straight state title, it was also able to keep intact its win streak to hand over to a core group of 14 juniors which may form a frighteningly good 2004 team.

"We definitely want to better the streak of that team that has, what, 100 in a row?" Gogofsky said, referring to the national record of 105 wins in a row by Oklahoma City Casady School (Okla.).