The Story of Two LHS National Champions

Written by Sheryll Massey

Cornell University at Ithaca, New York hosted the USPA Women's National Interscholastic Championship February 28 - March 2, 2008. Two Leonard High School Students, Courtney Rosa and Stephanie Massey and one student from Ohio, Molly Smith (all seniors) made up the women’s high school polo team playing for Las Colinas Polo Club of Dallas, Texas.

The original team members were three LHS students, but when Amanda Massey graduated in May of 2007, that left Stephanie Massey and Courtney Rosa with a vacant spot on their team. In 2006 and 2007, the three LHS students were the only women’s high school polo team in Texas. Sheryll Massey was unable to find another local girl to fill the position so they turned to the Polo Training Foundation for help locating another girl. Molly Smith of Ohio did not have a team within hundreds of miles of her to play with and had been trying to find a team for years. It seemed like the perfect match. All three girls wanted to play together, so they presented the facts to the United States Polo Association (USPA) requesting permission to allow Molly to play with the Las Colinas team. The USPA reviewed their case and granted Molly Smith a hardship in September 2007.

Later in the season after the first of the year, this decision was challenged by the Cornell University coach. Via email, Dave Eldredge of Cornell circulated a letter petitioning other coaches to question the eligibility status of the Las Colinas team and then challenged the USPA I/I Sub-Committee's ruling allowing Molly Smith to play on the team. The Sub-Committee reviewed their decision and stood by it. Next, a formal protest letter was written to the USPA against the USPA I/I Sub-committee's final ruling. Then the USPA Chairman and Committee reviewed the Sub-committee's decision regarding the Las Colinas team eligibility. Again the USPA upheld their decision. Through it all, the team continued to have faith that the USPA would uphold their original decision.

The three girls knew that the miles between them would prove to be challenging, limiting their time to practice and play together, but they all decided to make the most of every minute of their practices when they were together.

Texas A & M University women's polo team invited the high school team down to a weekend of polo at College Station in October. The team met at TAMU and had a great weekend of polo, touring the campus and taking in a football game. In November, Molly flew down during Thanksgiving and the team went to the Polo Training Foundation (PTF) at the Brushy Creek Ranch in Burleson, TX, where they endured a full weekend of training in the cold, rainy weather. As a team, in January, the Las Colinas team went to Maryland and played their toughest competition from the previous year, Maryland and the Garrison Forest School. They played three games and lost all three games. These games determined the Las Colinas team’s seating in the national tournament. In between these weekends of practice and games, Molly had to practice on her own and the LHS girls, Stephanie and Courtney continued with their practice schedule at the polo field (cow pasture) on the Massey's ranch during the week and traveled to the PTF arena at Burleson, TX about every other weekend to train and sometime’s scrimmaged with some of the women's collegiate teams, TAMU, OSU and TCU.

Las Colinas was seated third going into the national tournament. They played their first game against Charlottesville and won 23-9. Their next game, the semi-finals, against Garrison Forest was a real nail biter. After the fourth chucker (period) ended, the score was tied up at 19-19. The game went into an over-time with a shoot-out. Stephanie Massey was the only player from either team who scored her penalty shot, giving Las Colinas a victory of 20-19.

Right after the game, Kim Syme, the USPA Tournament Director approached Sheryll Massey regarding the horse strings for the final game on Sunday. Kim told her because Las Colinas won, they would advance to the finals against Maryland and that Las Colinas would have a choice to play the scheduled horses from Garrison Forest or the Cornell 1 string. After talking with the team and giving it some thought, Sheryll Massey decided it would be best to play the horses already scheduled to avoid offending any of the horse owners. The Las Colinas team was very happy with that decision and looked forward to playing the Garrison Forest horses.

Saturday evening all of the teams attended a banquet. The USPA, Ed Armstrong, Director of Clubs, Tournaments and Membership and Kim Syme thanked Cornell University for hosting the tournament, the PTF, and all the horse string providers: Cornell University, Maryland Polo Club, Garrison Forest and Brandywine Polo Club. Guest speaker, Dan Calhoun spoke briefly about the three main polo organizations, their duties and how it all works for the sake of continued education and growth of the sport. All of the teams got up and introduced themselves giving their name, their grade level, and how long they have been playing. If they were a senior, after graduation plans were discussed.

When the Las Colinas team spoke, Courtney Rosa said she had been playing for three years, was from Leonard and was a senior at LHS. She had applied to three different polo universities and was still waiting to hear from them. Molly Smith was from Pataskala, Ohio (near Columbus) also a senior and had been playing for four years. Molly was planning to attend University of Kentucky. Stephanie Massey said that she was also a senior at Leonard High School, had been playing polo for seven years and was going to Texas A & M University- College Station. Then Stephanie took a moment to boldly tell the banquet that Jesus was her Lord and Savior. She glance around the room and said "Most of you are aware of the controversy surrounding our team regarding our eligibility to even play in this tournament, so first I want to thank God for having his hand on us through it all, because without God, we wouldn't be here right now. Next, I want to thank Ed Armstrong with the USPA for allowing us to play in this tournament, because that is all we wanted was an opportunity to play. Then I would like to thank my Mom, our coach for everything, for dedicating so much of her time and energy to our team, her coaching and encouraging words, providing us with horses, driving us all over the place and our Dad for his support and sponsoring our team to make it all possible, and to both of my parents for sacrificing their polo time so our team could practice and play the horses. Also I want to thank Robin Sanchez at the PTF for providing us with the use of the arena and house, Jesse Upchurch for the use of the Brushy Creek Ranch. Finally, I want to thank Cissie Jones-Snow because I give her all of the credit for the player I am today". It was a heart-felt and moving speech that sent quite a message to all at the banquet.

With the win against Garrison Forest School, Las Colinas advanced to the finals on Sunday at noon. The girls were faced with playing the same team (Maryland) that had beaten them the previous two years at National's. That morning, before going to the arena, the team met with their coach, Sheryll Massey, to go over their game plan and talk about their team and game strategies, etc. After discussing a strong man to man defense, denying their opponent's access to the ball, quick line changes, rotating quickly, screens, penalties, offensive plays, follow through on penalty shots horses, etc., it was time to talk about the most important part, the hearts and attitudes of the team regarding each other on and off the field and towards their opponents.

Sheryll Massey began by telling them how well they were doing in the tournament and how proud she was of them. How they had overcome so much to get to the tournament and now for their first time, they were playing in the Cornell arena and playing on the Cornell horses and doing so well. Most of the other teams already had an advantage because they had previously played in the Cornell arena. She said, "There is something great and amazing happening here. Here we have three girls who have only practiced three times (weekends) together over the last six months, yet our team dynamics are better than our opponents playing in this tournament, teams with a huge advantage over us who have been practicing together every day after school in an arena and playing together most every weekend. In addition to that, they have brought their own horses to the tournament, giving them another advantage over us. Through it all though, we have kept our faith and kept our focus. If we want to win today, then we must have a winning attitude first.”

Sheryll continued, "I think what sets us apart from the other teams is the fact that we are all Christians. We have Jesus in our hearts and we share our faith in God openly by praying together before every game. Girls, I truly believe that God is in control of everything all of the time, do you believe that?” Each of the girls replied individually that they believed God was in control. Sheryll Massey said "Okay then, as a team we all believe and acknowledge that God is in control, so let's play for God today, not for ourselves. Let's go out there and play with God in our hearts to bring him glory." Stephanie replied, "Mom can you hear that song playing on my IPOD right now? "No, why?" Stephanie turned it up. The girls all looked at each other and said, "The song playing is ‘The Glory’".

What perfect timing, at that moment everyone felt God's presence and his blessings filling their hearts with his love, power, peace, and wisdom. Suddenly they found themselves united as a team and pumped up for God. Stephanie said, "With God with us, who can come against us?" Everyone agreed.

Sheryll went on to say, "Win or lose today ladies, we know that we are playing for God, so he will be glorified in that. If we happen to lose, then we will happily accept the loss as God's will for us with no regrets knowing that we played the game for God’s glory. We may not understand the lesson he wants to teach us here with a loss, but one day God will reveal it to us. If we win, we will give all of the glory, thanks and praise to God. So girls with God in our hearts, win or lose, we have already won the victory”.

The team arrived to the arena pumped up with the power of God in their hearts and ready to play their toughest opposing team. They all sat down around the 25 yard line on some bleachers and had a few minutes together to watch some of the consolation games before the girls would go tack up their horses to get ready for their game. While sitting there, the Maryland coach came strolling over, arm and arm with her best player. Sheryll Massey noticed that they were giggling and acting out of character as they approached, but didn’t think much of it till later. As they passed by, they stopped, backed up and the coach said, "Oh you may not realize this, but the Garrison Forest horses are being played right now". Exclamations of surprise followed, "What?" The Maryland coach went on to say that Sheryll probably needed to go find out about it, because that was just WRONG to be done that way just before the finals and how they were supposed to play those horses too, along with their own horses. Sheryll Massey went over with Cissie Jones-Snow to find out what happened to the horses scheduled for the final game. After talking with Kim Syme a few minutes, Cissie left to go find Ed Armstrong with the USPA.

Sheryll stayed to talk with Kim and basically was told that the Garrison Forest coach decided to pull the horses. Kim apologized and said it was her mistake giving Las Colinas a horse preference for the finals. Las Colinas was assigned the Cornell 1 string at the beginning of the tournament, so the team must play the horses assigned to them. Instead of being upset, Sheryll Massey was at peace and told Kim Syme that she understood completely, had no hard feelings toward her and not to have any worries; it would be fine. Las Colinas will happily play the Cornell 1 horses. Molly’s mother, Melinda mentioned to Sheryll that she thought this was just one more ploy by Maryland and Garrison Forest Coaches to get the girls to lose their focus just minutes before the final game. But what those coaches didn't realize was the fact that Sheryll and the girls knew that God was in control, so obviously God wanted them to play on the Cornell horses.

In an arena tournament, there are two strings of horses with six each. There are two teams of three players mounted to play four 7 1/2 minute chuckers (periods). Each team has a string of horses they are responsible for tacking before the game starts. The strings are split and shared by both teams and it is written down who will ride which horses in which chuckers. There is a coin toss to determine which team’s horse string plays first.

Las Colinas knew that they needed to win the coin toss if they were to finally have an advantage. The three horses in their first chucker would be their weakest period against Maryland, so they wanted to play those horses first. They knew that two of the three horses didn’t have the stamina compared to the opposing horse string. They knew they needed to win the coin toss to have an opportunity to dominate after half time. Winning the coin toss would also provide them with another edge; they would be playing Maryland's horses the second and fourth chuckers. Realizing the importance of riding an evenly matched string was critical for the Las Colinas team in order to hold Maryland in the last chucker to finish the game well.

Kim Syme called the team captains over to do the coin toss for the horse strings. As the coin was tossed up in the air, Stephanie watched the coin flipping end over end in the air and knew that God was even in control of that coin. The coin landed on the ground in favor of Las Colinas and the girls were thrilled and thanked the Lord. God is in Control!

The first chucker began with Maryland scoring the first goal. Las Colinas quickly came back scoring the next goal. With Las Colinas’s tough man to man defense, Maryland began to foul under the pressure. Courtney Rosa was playing a strong man to man defense against Maryland’s best player, Courtney Asdourian. About four minutes into the first chucker, Courtney Rosa was T-boned by Courtney Asdourian (another foul by Maryland) injuring her mallet arm. A fifteen minute time out was taken to see if Courtney Rosa could recover and continue to play. With determination and her arm wrapped, Courtney resumed playing. Play resumed with a penalty two; Stephanie took the shot on goal from the 15 yard line and scored for Las Colinas. Courtney Asdourian of Maryland quickly came back with a goal for their team. Before the period ended Maryland scored again finishing the first chucker with a score of 3-2, Maryland leading. Las Colinas was extremely pleased with their performance because they managed to hold their competition and were off to a great start. Maryland had an established reputation for taking control of the game in the first chucker and usually with a six point lead.

After the second period, the score was 9-7, Maryland leading by only two points. In the third period, Las Colinas came out energized, strong and fast dominating over Maryland, scoring six points to Maryland's two. Las Colinas took the lead with 13- 11. In the final chucker, Las Colinas scored two and Maryland three making the score 15-14. In the final seconds of the game, Maryland was down on their goal trying to score and Las Colinas was trying to clear the ball. The tension was building as the seconds were ticking by when suddenly Stephanie sweeps in to clear the ball with an under the neck shot shooting the ball up the arena. As both teams raced across the center line the timer was counting down the final ten seconds of the game. The buzzer sounded as Molly Smith hit the ball which rolled into the goal. The game ended just before, so the goal did not count. The final score was 15-14. Stephanie scored 10 points, Courtney 3 and Molly 1. During the game, a penalty one was awarded giving them 1 additional goal.

Las Colinas won over the Maryland team for a sweet, sweet victory for the glory to God. United and powered by God’s strength, the Las Colinas team capitalized on their skills, strengths, knowledge and strategies to play the game of their lives. The team won the ultimate victory by having hearts for God and giving him the glory.

Minutes after the game ended at the awards ceremony, the winners of the tournament received the traveling trophy. Their team name along with the player’s names will be engraved on the trophy with the year 2008. The winners also received a nice red polo travel bag from La Martina with USPA National Interscholastic Championship Polo on the side.

Stephanie Massey was voted to the National All-Star team for the third year in a row along with Courtney Asdourian of Maryland, Emily Dameron of Garrison Forest and Kailey Eldredge of Cornell.

Meg Greenhalgh of the Garrison Forest School received the Sportsmanship Award.

The best playing pony was a great little paint with a huge heart for polo, named Napoleon, owned by the Maryland coach, Kelly Wells.


On a personal note:

After returning home and reflecting over this past year, I was inspired to share our story. Upon our arrival to Cornell, we really didn’t know what to expect. Who knew what we were about to experience? On the first day when we walked into the beautiful heated, well lit John T. Oxley Equestrian Center, it felt like we were a little beam of light surrounded by darkness. From the beginning of the tournament on Thursday to Sunday during the finals, God’s light began to work and shine through us in regards to how we conducted ourselves on and off the field amongst ourselves and interacting with everyone else. We knew all eyes were on us, so we did our best to become a spot light for God. God’s light shining through us slowly drew people closer to us. God’s amazing light became a little brighter throughout each day and night, building and growing until the morning of the finals when it became brilliantly full, filling the crowd’s hearts with their support for the Las Colinas team. Most of the parents and players openly demonstrated their support and God’s love for our team during the finals. Thank you everyone. We will happily cherish all of the wonderful memories you so fondly gave us.

We want to thank Jesse Pruitt of the Las Colinas Polo Club of Dallas, TX for giving us the honor of playing and representing him and his club for the past three years.

I want to thank Cissie Jones-Snow with an enormous amount of gratitude and appreciation from my heart. Cissie is a lovely and amazing person who inspired us to start our team four years ago. She trained us and always encouraged us to make lemonade out of lemons. She co-coached the team with me until a year ago when she married and moved away to the Boston area. Up until that time, she was the PTF Director at Brushy Creek Ranch in Burleson. I give full credit to her for my skills and knowledge of arena polo enabling me to continue and finish what we started.) Thank you for driving through a blizzard to be with us during the tournament.

Stephanie Massey, Courtney Rosa and I would like to thank the Leonard High School Staff, Teachers and Student Body for their support. We give a special thank you to Mr. Lafavers for believing in our program and to Mr. Kent, Ms. Coylene and the teachers for making this possible.

The three of us also want to thank Courtney’s mother, Judy Rosa for happily filming all of our games over the years. Sometimes this involved her climbing up and down walls and sitting right in the line of fire. We spent hours studying our competition and developing game strategies from the films. Thank you so much!!!

We want to thank everyone else (too numerous to list) who scrimmaged and played with us, shared their polo knowledge, strategies and skills to make this possible. It really took an entire village to do it! Thank you everyone.

We are a living testimony that God is working, especially in dark places and polo is by no means an exception. If being “Of the world” was a cake, polo would probably be the icing on the top. God will use us in dark places and situations if we will only have faith and follow him. This past year, God has blessed us with his light and he has taken us through the most incredible experience of our lives. Stephanie and I want to thank our church, FBC Leonard for their prayers and support.

We hope our experience will encourage you to have and to hold onto your faith, because God is in control and we thank him, praise him and live to give him the glory.