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Anastasia: Eastern's Heilig sees all the angles

Good coaches see around corners. Danyle Heilig isn't a good coach. She's a great coach. So maybe she sees around that corner, down that street, into that alley, through that back door, along that hallway and up those steps that take her team to that rooftop deck, year after year after year.

Eastern coach Danyle Heilig directs her team during the Tournament of Champions.
Eastern coach Danyle Heilig directs her team during the Tournament of Champions.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Good coaches see around corners.

Danyle Heilig isn't a good coach.

She's a great coach.

So maybe she sees around that corner, down that street, into that alley, through that back door, along that hallway and up those steps that take her team to that rooftop deck, year after year after year.

Maybe Heilig knew exactly what she was doing when she voted along with the seven other members of the NJSIAA's Field Hockey Committee last December to seed the sport's Tournament of Champions by power points.

Maybe she knew Eastern - the best team in the nation, hands down - would get slighted by the mathematical system and be awarded a seed that made no sense given its status.

Maybe she knew that "insult" would throw another log - or three, soaked in kerosene - on the competitive fire that rages within her program.

"I didn't know," Heilig insisted the other night, as Eastern was two-thirds of the way through another postseason tour de force by South Jersey's most accomplished program in any sport. "I never thought we would get a four seed."

Eastern finished another undefeated season with a 5-0 victory over North Jersey private-school power Oak Knoll - the closest thing the state has to offer in terms of a "rival" - in the Tournament of Champions title game Friday night at Kean University.

The imposing victory closed the book on this season for Eastern with a 27-0 record.

The Vikings have won 76 games in a row.

They are unbeaten in their last 133 games.

Their last two senior classes have spent four seasons in the program without a loss.

"I love this group," Heilig said of her seniors after Wednesday night's semifinal-round victory.

This was a remarkable class, led by midfielder Maddie Morano, a Penn State-bound athlete who Heilig says might be the best all-around player in the coach's 17 seasons.

"I've had great defenders, great attackers," Heilig said. "Full field, she might be the best I've ever coached."

Morano and 69-goal scorer Nikki Santore this year, national-record obliterator Austyn Cuneo last year, the Dawson sisters and the Walls triplets and Lori Hillman - the list of great players who have worn the navy and cardinal of Eastern field hockey goes on and on.

The constant for 17 consecutive seasons - every one of which, incredibly, has ended in a Group 4 state title - is the tightly-coiled little bundle of energy and expertise who has walked the Vikings' sidelines.

Heilig's record at Eastern: 416-8-5.

Eastern didn't need the extra motivation that accompanied the four seed in the Tournament of Champions. The Vikings are as fiercely focused as any team in any sport, pursuing excellence in every practice, on every possession.

But as Helig noted after the team's sluggish - by their sky-high standards, anyway - win over top-seeded Warren Hills in the semifinals, her players "are kids."

And good coaches will take every edge.

But Heilig isn't a good coach.

She's a great coach.

And if she didn't see the four seed coming last December, she made sure her team took full advantage in November.

And she's already looking around that next corner, and down that next street, and into that next alley, toward next November.

panastasia@phillynews.com

@PhilAnastasia

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