Star light, star bright

Morgan Beale got faster with every sprint around the cones. Even when she had to grip her field hockey stick with a broken finger and push a ball through an asphalt maze, Osbourn High School's sophomore forward found a way to out-run the stopwatch.

Revealing the same dexterity that has made her the Eagles' first bona fide star, Beale blazed through a tryout for the USA Field Hockey Futures program and emerged with an invitation to participate in a series of six specialized training sessions at American University.

"She's going to be somebody to really watch," Osbourn coach Donna Birmingham said. "At tryouts, you are allowed to do the course twice and you submit both times. Well, we prac-ticed without a ball just running through the course as fast as she could go and the last time through, with the ball, she beat that time."

The USA Field Hockey Futures program is designed specifically for athletes like Beale, a novice player with the potential to become a great one.

And she is surely on the cusp of greatness as a first-year starter and leading scorer for a team that is preparing to play a home game in the Northwest Region Tournament in its second varsity season.

"Last year she was a beginner for us and we really didn't have a good place for her. We tried her in a lot of different places all over the field," Birmingham said. "But she had two assists so we knew she had a nose for the goal."

Until she signed up to play field hockey last fall, Beale was best known for her defensive prowess on the soccer field.

Over the past few months, however, she has carved out a new niche as a record-setting scorer who has produced three game-winning goals and a team-high 20 points this season.

"I've been playing for two years. I didn't know anything about field hockey before I signed myself up at club night," Beale said. "It was really hard learning new rules and every-thing, but I think I get it now."

After starting the season as a right wing in Osbourn's 4-3-3 offensive alignment, Beale recently switched to center forward. She has contributed either a goal or an assist in seven of the Eagles' 15 games and has become the focus of attention for opposing defenses.

"Usually someone drives it and I tap it in, but one time I actually drove it in the goal and that was the best one," Beale said.

After winning just one game last year, Osbourn has made significant strides with Beale on the field.

As her confidence and skill level improved, the Eagles did too. She's served as a game-day cap-tain and become a popular leader on a young team that expects to contend for a Cedar Run District championship in 2011.

"When we started three years ago, we got a bunch of girls who were at the same level," Birmingham said. "Now we have some amazing underclassmen who have started to arrive. If you look at our sophomore class, they really have something. It's going to be a fun group to grow with."

Nine different players have contributed at least one goal during the regular season with Alyson Saylors, Molly Kopera, Megan Burtch, Julie Dalton and Beale combining for 20 of the team's 25 goals as well as 11 assists.

"For some teams, it's a problem when your leading scorer is marked closely," Bir-mingham said. "But we've had nine different players score this year and I'm really proud of that."

Beale's eight goals is a single-season school record, yet she is just beginning to establish herself in the sport.

She played a reserve role as the Eagles, led by the program's first Futures participant Maggie Dalton, ventured into varsity territory last fall. But Beale returned from summer camp at Fauquier High School will an unexpected swagger that belies her gentle personality and instantly transformed the of-fense.

"Morgan went off to camp with a friend and something clicked," Birmingham said. "When she came back it was an amazing transformation for her personally. So we stuck her right up front and started her at wing where she's really comfortable.

"She's become a threat all around. I'm excited that we have her for two more years."

The future—for Beale and the Eagles—is filled with exciting possibilities. When the season is over, she'll join the nation's most promising young players for six months of developmental in-struction from some of the game's top coaches.

But, right now, she is fascinated by Osbourn's first foray into the postseason.

"I've never played a sport where I've gone to a championship. I really want a patch for my letter jacket," she said. "Now that we're going to regionals, the future will be way better. We've gone this far, so you never know what can happen."