By Andy Loigu

One of the brightest stars in the glorious history of field hockey at Warren Hills, Toni Popinko, coached the Phillipsburg Stateliners to their first-ever Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex championship this fall. Ironically enough, the team they shutout in the championship final was Warren Hills.

Leading the way on the field in a 2-0 win for Phillipsburg were goal scorers Jill Miller and Erica Davey. Both goals were assisted by Julia Butler. Goalkeeper Jordan Nonnemacher turned away 10 shots on goal in blanking the Blue Streaks, something that rarely happens.

Popinko joined the faculty at PHS in 2014, following a four-year career as a player at The University of Delaware, a strong Division 1 program. In her senior season she started 25 games for The Blue Hens and scored 14 goals and distributed 12 assists.

Last season, 2022, Popinko was honored by The National Federation of High School Coaches as New Jersey Field Hockey Coach of the Year. The steadily improving Stateliners had an .800 winning percentage and reached the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex semifinal.

In January of this year, she married former Warren Hills football player Storm Deemer. We wish them a lifetime of happiness.

As a Warren Hills standout, Popinko was selected Player of the Year by The Express Times in 2009. Her mentor with the Blue Streaks, Laurie Kerr, was honored as Coach of the Year by The Express Times that same season. Kerr also earned the same honor in 2003. Kerr had a special knack for turning timid freshmen into star performers by the time they were sophomores. Year after year she put teams on the field which had no discernable weaknesses.

STREAKS TAME TIGERS

Warren Hills, rated 19th in New Jersey by NJ.com, did win its traditional rivalry game with Hackettstown on Oct. 21, by a 4-0 score. There is no ceremonial Beater Board for the winner, as there is for football, but there still is pride and local “bragging rights” at play when these two programs compete on the field.

With an offense that keeps coming at you, the Blue Streaks fired 20 shots on goal, scoring on four of them. Sarah Salameh scored a three-goal “hat trick” and also assisted on a goal which was registered by Addie Conaboy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.