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Bird of Prey
Depending on your viewpoint, Blue Jay Lacey-Leigh Hentz is an intense, physical player, or an over-aggressive goon. Either way, she’s the most feared defender in the game
By Michael Piper (Inside Lacrosse Magazine, Feb. 18, 2005)

Johns Hopkins senior defender Kristen Miller vividly remembers her first college practice as a freshman. She came into that nerve-wracking day understandably jittery.

Like most rookies, she didn’t know quite what to expect. She was timid. A little gun-shy. Waiting to let the veterans show the way by example.
So were the rest of her classmates. Except one.

“Coach [Janine] Tucker had us doing 1-on-1s,” Miller says. “She had Erin Wellner, who was one of our best attackers, take the ball and she asked who wanted to play defense. We were all kind of looking at each other and then Lacey Hentz stepped out. She stopped her on the crease and we all thought, `This girl can play a little bit.’”

That’s a little bit of an understatement.

Hentz’s willingness to take on the best was not only something the Johns Hopkins coaching staff expected, but something they counted on when they brought the North Carroll, Md. product into the fold. Hentz, one of the young program’s first top recruits, had plenty of athleticism but it was her passion and fearlessness that set her apart from other high school lacrosse players.

“She was the kind of player that caught coaches’ eyes at every camp,” Tucker says. “She’s just a tremendous player and she played so hard. She was so focused and intense, you could see it in her eyes.”

Yet the same passion and aggressiveness that makes Hentz so unique on the field also can pass for over-aggressiveness and dirty play. As a result, Hentz has developed two parallel reputations during her career at Hopkins.

The first is as a top-flight defender. She’s made the American Lacrosse Conference first team in each of the last three springs and is without question one of the top takeaway defenders in the country. She forced 32 turnovers last season, good for second in the nation.

The second reputation is not quite as flattering. Opposing fans and perhaps some opposing players and coaches have branded Hentz as a dirty player. A defender who will take ill-advised and dangerous risks to strip the ball and will run over anything or anyone in her path to secure a groundball. That reputation is backed up by her 75 fouls last season, nearly two times as many as any other Blue Jay.

This negative sentiment became apparent to Hentz last year when she made the mistake of venturing onto an Internet lacrosse forum. The senior chooses not to elaborate on what was posted, but she took the criticism to heart.
“A lot of things were written by people who don’t know me as a person and who don’t understand my philosophy of the game,” she says. “Whenever I’m doing something I love—in this case it’s lacrosse—I do it intensely.

“But I think that has given me a reputation. I don’t go out on the field thinking, `I’m going to be the baddest *** out here,’ but I’m not going to be intimidated either.”

Tucker cannot agree more with Hentz’s take on things, though she and the Hopkins coaching staff have worked with her over the last three years to improve her risk-taking decisions.

“Lacey has always had a swagger about her, ever since I’ve seen her play,” Tucker says. “She was so intense that I did wonder if we could control her a little bit when she got here. Her aggressiveness and fearlessness are great, but we’ve worked hard to rein her in a little bit these last three years.

“Lacey’s first couple of years, I wouldn’t say she was dirty at all, but she was not in total control and she found herself in a lot of detrimental situations. I remember having to take her out of the game a couple of times. But last year, I think she showed a lot of control and we were really impressed with her this fall.”

Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller has seen Hentz play plenty of times and has seen plenty of lacrosse. She herself was an aggressive two-sport athlete and one of the best ever while at Maryland.

She brings up the interesting point that, though she doesn’t see any of Hentz’s play as dirty, it’s up to the referees regardless.

“Being intense and physical is part of the female athlete these days even if people don’t expect it,’’ Hiller says. “When a kid plays hard, a lot of times it’s interpreted as being over the line. I know Janine is not that kind of coach and I think Lacey plays just good, hard-nosed lacrosse. But if she goes over the line it is up to the referees to set the line.”

The shame of the second half of Hentz’s reputation is that it, in some people’s opinions anyway, overshadows her other athletic attributes. While other players will be lauded for speed, stick skills, shooting prowess or other such technical elements, any quality other than Hentz’s toughness—for better or worse—tends to be forgotten.

Hentz scored six goals last season despite taking just 10 shots from her defensive spot and turned the ball over just 11 times. She also had 19 draw controls as the Blue Jays put together a 12-4 regular season that included a 4-2 mark in the ALC and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

In her career at Homewood, Hentz has started 48 of the 49 games in which she’s played (she missed two games with an ankle injury as a sophomore) and has piled up career totals of 117 caused turnovers and 139 groundballs.
And it’s also no coincidence that Hopkins has gotten better each season. The Blue Jays went 10-8 in 2002, reaching the ECAC finals and finishing with a No. 18 national ranking. In ’03 Hopkins went 11-5 and then last season shot into the Top 10 as one of the biggest stories of the spring. Hentz is of course not the only reason for that success—last year senior Heidi Pearce and freshman Mary Key were also All-Americas and first-team ALC selections—but her competitiveness is contagious.

“Lacey’s focus and intensity is integral to this team,” Tucker says. “There are a lot of reasons we were successful last season but we would definitely be in a different place right now if we didn’t have Lacey on this team. She has a lot to do with our mindset.”

THE THREE HENTZ GIRLS (Ahna, Kellyn and Lacey-Leigh) began playing lacrosse about the same time in the front lawn of their home in Hampstead, Md. Parents Larry and Pat Hentz had lacrosse backgrounds, Larry playing club ball in college and Pat playing varsity, and Pat would often take the girls out to play catch.

Eventually the three girls, who began their athletic careers in the spring’s other team sport, figured out that softball just wasn’t going to cut it.
“There’s only one play going on at a time,” Lacey-Leigh says. “I played soccer in the fall and I loved running around and all the action. Softball just wasn’t stimulating.”

So the youngest Hentz decided to play lacrosse. Right away she wanted to play at St. James’ Episcopal Academy for a very important reason—they played in kilts.

At the time, lacrosse was just growing its roots in Carroll County and the opportunities for girls were limited. It may sound odd, but Hentz grew up between Baltimore and Annapolis with limited lacrosse options, in somewhat of a loophole in the sport. “We might as well have been three hours away,” she says.

Yet, the St. James program happened to be one of the better girls’ lacrosse programs in the area. Katie Chrest, now a star at Duke and then living just down the street from Hentz, was playing in the program, as was Virginia’s Gina Allen.

Hentz played with her older sisters and mostly older girls but, in typical fashion, thrived on the challenge. “I’m not real easily intimidated, so I really liked playing with the older girls,” she says.

As she got older and into middle school she began to travel and play with a Hero’s Lacrosse reek team in Annapolis. There was an adjustment to the skill level, but it was welcome for Hentz.

“I loved it because the competition was so good,” she says. “I loved going down there and playing well because people would be like, `Where is she from?’”

Needless to say, people soon found out. Hentz was the target of several schools’ recruiting interest, including the initial school of her choice, Georgetown. As the recruiting process continued, however, Loyola emerged as the prohibitive favorite.

With a little help from Larry and Pat, Johns Hopkins entered the mix and it came down to the two schools separated by about a mile and a half on Charles St.

“[Former Loyola coach] Diane [Geppi-Aikens] and I used to laugh when we were recruiting the same player and we were both real high on Lacey,” says Tucker, a 1989 Loyola graduate. “Lacey went to Loyola on her visit and loved it, so we went out the next night and had dinner with her family. I think mom and dad helped out a little but we knew it was a big deal when she decided on Hopkins.”

Hentz’s parents played a role, as did the academics at Hopkins, but there was a third reason.

“I knew I could play right away at Hopkins and be part of a growing program,” Hentz says. “I just wasn’t sure I’d handle it well if I was on the bench at Loyola at first and, if you’re a program at the top, there’s really only one direction to go. I’m not saying that any of those programs are bad, but I just wanted to be part of a growing program. It was a tough decision, though, because I really loved both coaches and I did not want to have to tell one of them I was going to the other school.”

Hopkins eventually won out and, though it took time to adjust, Hentz eventually flourished. Now, after a strong season in ’04, the senior is looking for even bigger things in 2005.

“I’ve always enjoyed the fall but kind of dreaded the beginning of the spring because of all the running and conditioning, but it was different this year,” Hentz says. “I just have a completely different feeling. I’m really excited. I went home for Christmas break and I was emailing everybody and telling them we were going to have pep rallies and go to class with our faces painted, which is weird because we’re not going to do those things. But I really like our freshmen and I feel like we can really accomplish something. We’re underdogs, but I feel like we can do a lot more than just go to the NCAA Tournament this season.”

ULTIMATELY, regardless of what fans or opposing players and their parents think of Hentz, the reality is this: she’s the player you hate to play against, but love to have on your team. Even an opposing coach like Hiller sees that.
“I can’t speak to what she’s like day to day but she is a physical and emotional force,” she says. “You can see that team feed off of her aggressiveness. She’s a great leader.”

Tucker obviously agrees. Having that kind of intensity and energy on your team is invaluable and should help Hopkins avoid letting up at all after last year’s success.

“Lacey is a natural leader because of the way she plays the game,” she says. “There are a lot of girls that are great athletes but will never play at her level and sustain it for an entire game, which she does on an every-game basis. Our players, at least, have tremendous respect for her passion and I think most opponents do too.”

Hentz’s teammates also recognize a different side of her. She’s not the crazy lunatic some Internet message board hacks make her out to be. There’s another side. She sings the national anthem before every Hopkins game, is part of a country music band with friends and often serves as the entertainment on bus rides.

As her roommate of three years, Miller knows her as well as anyone on the team.

“Lacey has a strong personality on and off the field but she isn’t nearly as intimidating off the field,” she says with a laugh before adding dryly, “if she likes you.”

Hentz’s reputation as a physical defender isn’t all bad. Her mere presence can alter a team’s offensive game plan. “Sometimes there are attackers that get the ball, see Lacey and just keep it moving instead of challenging her,” Tucker says.

The senior realizes this even though she knows certain referees and coaches will be keeping a special eye on her every game.

“It can work for or against you because sometimes people will think twice before challenging me but, a lot of times, if they do they’ll get a whistle,” Hentz says. “I don’t want women’s lacrosse to be in pads and helmets like the guys; I just think people jump to the conclusion that because we have to wear goggles that our sport is barbaric.

“It’s important to let us play a little bit. I haven’t seen field hockey in a while, but I feel like it’s a little too conservative. Sometimes in lacrosse, people see something happen and just assume it must have been a foul because someone falls down or drops their stick.”

She realizes, after all, that it’s the goal-scorers who generally earn the most attention, the flashy midfielders and attackers flying up the field and whizzing around the goal.

“There isn’t as much appreciation for a player who goes out and makes a defensive play or gets a groundball,” she says.
She should know. She’s experienced it first hand.


FROM INSIDE LACROSSE MAGAZINE:
subscription information @ www.insidelacrosse.com