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LCCC’s Schulman Gallery holds local artist exhibit

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Mill Memorial Library holds preschool story hour

<p>For all the ways Brigid Wood helped her Coughlin field hockey teammates excel, in the end it turns out she actually needed them the most this year.</p><p>Especially after she broke her stick just before the start of the playoffs.</p><p>&#8220;Right before our Valley West game at home, we were warming up,&#8221; Wood said. &#8220;I just kept shooting and my stick felt weird. I shot one more time and it broke. I just had to find extra sticks and played with them through the rest of the season. A store with a big selection is an hour and a half away. I didn&#8217;t have that kind of time.</p><p>&#8220;After we finished, I finally found a stick.&#8221;</p><p>Not that she had to beg, borrow or steal to leave a lasting imprint on Coughlin.</p><p>Long before Wood was chosen as the 2015 Times Leader Player of the Year, she was working on lifting the Crusaders to new heights.</p><p>She inspired players like Kyra Wozniak, this year&#8217;s leading scorer for Coughlin, into joining the field hockey team. She tirelessly practiced plays and proper technique with her teammates. Then she lifted the level of play of everyone around her by not only showing the Crusaders the way to success, but by stepping aside time and again to allow her teammates to hone their skills.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, it would be easy to score goals when you&#8217;re up by 20,&#8221; the daughter of Jim and Coughlin coach Colleen Wood of Wilkes-Barre said. &#8220;That&#8217;s really not what the game is about. It&#8217;s about just trying to make everybody else better.&#8221;</p><p>It all came together this season when Coughlin completed a perfect league season, as the Crusaders went 10-0 to win the Wyoming Valley Conference Division I for the third time and four years. They also won the third District 2 Class 3A title of Wood&#8217;s high school career and reached the state quarterfinals for the third time in that span.</p><p>&#8220;To go through the whole regular season undefeated was definitely something we couldn&#8217;t expect,&#8221; said Wood, a senior who recently signed to play field hockey for Boston College next season. &#8220;We were really proud of that.&#8221;</p><p>A player on the USA indoor and outdoor U-19 junior national field hockey teams and a second-team All-American as a junior in 2014, Wood received a rare honor for Northeastern Pennsylvania players when she was named as one of the top 12 players in the nation to watch in this year&#8217;s Max Field Hockey preseason rankings.</p><p>That was just the start of a successful senior season for Wood who was one of three WVC players to make the National Field Hockey Coaches Association first-team for the Pennsylvania Region this season.</p><p>She wound up with 11 goals and five assists in 10 regular-season games, finishing as one of the Wyoming Valley Conference&#8217;s top 12 scorers despite spending most of the year working on passing skills and helping on defense from her midfield position.</p><p>Because despite being more recognized for her offensive prowess, Wood also played a big part in helping Coughlin register nine shutouts throughout the regular schedule and district play by continually intercepting passes and regularly swatting the ball away when it approached the Coughlin circle.</p><p>&#8220;On the US outdoor team, I&#8217;m actually a defender,&#8221; said Wood, whose older sister Caitlin plays field hockey for Wilkes University. &#8220;I feel like it&#8217;s one of my stronger positions. On the indoor team, I was a forward. I&#8217;m not really sure what position I&#8217;ll play after I get to college. I feel it&#8217;s good to go between different positions and be whatever your team needs you to be that game.&#8221;</p><p>When her team needed her to produce points, Wood was also there.</p><p>She opened Coughlin&#8217;s postseason by scoring the first and last goals of a 7-0 district semifinal victory over Delaware Valley.</p><p>Then Wood delivered her most electric offensive outburst of the season in Coughlin&#8217;s state opener. She slammed home three goals and added two assists - carrying the Crusaders to a 5-4 victory and into the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals while displaying the scoring prowess she was capable of producing all season if her team had needed it.</p><p>&#8220;In that game, I just wanted to make it to the next round,&#8221; Wood said. &#8220;It was do or go home. The competition, once you get in (the state playoffs), is just so high.&#8221;</p><p>Certainly, Wood was more than prepared for it.</p><p>Or maybe she just finally found a lucky stick.</p><p>&#8220;I think that one was my sister&#8217;s,&#8221; Wood said, &#8220;from when she was in high school.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brigid Wood 12/14/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_TTL122015FHPoyWood3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brigid Wood 12/14/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Field Hockey Player of the Year Brigid Wood leads Coughlin to success