Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007
When asked to describe the athletic prowess of Rachel Stream, current and opposing coaches seemed to be reading from the same press release. Phrases such as ‘‘natural athlete,” ‘‘positive attitude” and ‘‘hard worker” rolled off their knowledgeable tongues over and over again.
Considering what Stream has accomplished in not one, not two, but three different sports — field hockey, basketball and softball — it’s easy to understand the gushing reviews of the Poolesville senior.
‘‘She’s a natural athlete,” Poolesville field hockey coach Regina Grubb said. ‘‘In all three sports, she puts everything into it. She just wants to be the best and do the best she can at everything.”
Stream began playing all three sports at an early age — gaining interest in softball through her mother, basketball through her friends and field hockey through the county-based Champions of Tomorrow program — and has excelled in each one equally during her Poolesville tenure.
‘‘It really is very rare [for someone to play three sports now],” Poolesville softball coach Laurie Wohnhas said. ‘‘I guess it shows she’s one of those natural athletes who is able to adjust to each sport and stay in shape.”
Rocket arm
Wohnhas has used all of Stream’s various skills during her first three seasons on the softball team, starting her at third base as freshman, shortstop as a sophomore and pitcher as a junior after the graduation of the team’s top hurler, Stacy Gilbert.
‘‘Rachel had some experience, so she went ahead and did a great job,” Wohnhas said. ‘‘She kind of surprised me. She’s always willing to help out. She’s a hard worker and definitely a leader on the field.”
As the team’s top hurler, Stream, a first-team All-Gazette selection, guided the Falcons to a 16-3 record and to the 1A South Region final, where they fell, 10-4, to Charles County’s North Point. She compiled a 1.25 earned-run average and struck out about six batters per game for the season.
Stream, who spends most of her summers playing travel softball with the Damascus Hurricanes, was even better at the plate, leading Poolesville in most offensive categories, including a .524 batting average, four home runs and 23 runs batted in.
Hoop it up
‘‘She just has the natural ability to take up whatever she needs to quickly,” Poolesville girls basketball coach Randy Berger said. ‘‘She puts the time and effort in and she goes above and beyond what you ask her to do.”
For his regional semifinalist squad, Berger asked Stream to alternate between both guard spots while adding a potent scoring attack from the perimeter. She did well enough to lead the Falcons to a 17-6 record, averaging 13.9 points per game to earn honorable mention All-Gazette honors.
‘‘The main thing is her attitude and work ethic that makes her really good,” Berger said. ‘‘Also, she’s a very aggressive kid, very aggressive. For us, she does it all. She was our best 3-point shooter last year and she can play point guard. Whenever she’s on the floor, she makes us a much better basketball team.”
Field hockey it is
As good as Stream is at those two sports, her best, and the one she’ll be playing in college, is field hockey. Hard to imagine? Just check out these facts — a school-record 48 career goals, 21 career assists and scholarship offers from Maryland, Old Dominion (Va.) and Louisville (Ky.).
Through this weekend, Stream had produced 19 goals and seven assists to lead the Falcons to an 8-1 record, its only loss a 3-1 setback to perennial county powerhouse Bethesda-Chevy Chase.
‘‘She’s a great player and all-around kid,” Barons coach Amy Wood said. ‘‘ She’s so humble, so talented, so athletic that as an opposing coach ... you can never dislike her. She’s humble. She plays hard and doesn’t talk trash.
‘‘[Her goal scoring] is a mental attitude. Goal scorers only see a goal and never see anything in front of it. She walks in the circle with the attitude that I’m going to put the ball in the back of the net. We’re the lucky ones to keep her at one.”
Stream began her freshman season on the junior varsity squad but after tearing up that level, Grubb brought her to the varsity squad about halfway through the season. As a sophomore, Stream provided the Falcons with eight goals and six assists as both a forward and midfielder.
With a year-plus of varsity under her belt, Stream joined the ranks of the county’s elite players a year ago, producing 19 goals and eight assists to help Poolesville average 4.9 goals per match.
‘‘She’s a very dynamic player and a playmaker,” Grubb said. ‘‘She helps the others step up to another level. It’s been really neat to watch her grow and see how she’s developed. Field hockey’s her passion. It’s what she’s pursuing right now.”
Stream’s decision to forgo basketball and softball at the next level was not necessarily the easiest, but it made the most sense in terms of future playing ability.
‘‘I guess the other two sports, I didn’t think I could go as far,” she said. ‘‘I’m going on my last official visit Oct. 22. After that, I’ll look at the pros and cons of each school. I love Louisville. Everything was so nice and so wonderful and Maryland was the same way. It’s a tough choice.”