School: Council Rock North
Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: "Probably Sidney Crosby. Saying so, I probably look like some kind of traitor, but I am definitely a Flyer's girl. Sid the Kid is just so good and so young. He's definitely someone to look up to."
Favorite team: The Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: "This past field hockey season at our away Abington game, I was dribbling the ball down the center of the field, between the 50 and the 25. Hannah, my sister, was at the top of the circle to the right of the goal. I passed it to her, and she drove it opposite corner with a double-banger goal. We have pictures of the two of us hugging after that goal. I'll never forget that."
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: "This past lacrosse season, during an indoor practice, we were practicing our eight-meter shots, and one girl on our team took another's ball out of her stick before she shot, and she didn't notice. She went to shoot, but there was no ball there, and she said, 'Oh, I guess I didn't have a ball.' We've been trying to get people on that for the past two years; it was hilarious when someone finally did."
Music on iPod: "Basically evertyhing, a lot of country."
Future plans: "Study at Cornell, possibly switching into the Engineering School to become a mechanical engineer. I would also like to teach Physics, so if I could teach later in life, that would be greaet. I would also definitely like to have a family."
Words to live by: "Life doesn't put obstacles in your way to stop you; it puts them there to see how hard you'll try to get over them." -Pat Toner
One goal before turnign 30: "Get a steady job that I love."
One thing people don't know about me: "I still sleep with my blankie!"
Elly Plappert is a standout athlete.
Last fall, the Council Rock North senior was the Player of the Year in field hockey in the National Conference. This spring, Plappert was the MVP on attack for her conference co-champion lacrosse team.
Talk to any one of her coaches, and it’s clear that talent is just the tip of the iceberg where this athlete is concerned.
“Elly is a natural leader,” said Pat Toner, who coached Plappert in both hockey and lacrosse. “She’s a tremendous captain in both field hockey and lacrosse.
“She’s someone you could look up to as a player. To have a player like her on the team is every coach’s dream. She’s that nice of a person. She’s the kind of kid you’d want as your daughter.”
Carolyn Kacergis offered similar sentiments.
“Elly Plappert is one of the best athletes I have ever seen,” the Indians’ lacrosse coach said. “She not only has tremendous skill, she leads the team on and off the field.
“She has a positive attitude. She’s always encouraging the rest of the team to keep going. Her work ethic and mentality are what made our team so successful.”
Heather Whalin has coached Plappert in both the club and high school settings.
“As a hockey player, she has the ability to take over a game if she wants to,” the Indians’ coach said. “She’s quiet, she works hard all the time, and she’s always trying to push her game to the next level and take her team to the next level.
“All the kids looked up to her. When they talked about being a good player, they talked about being Elly Plappert.”
This fall, Plappert –an honors student - will be taking her talents to Cornell University where she will play field hockey and major in Science of Earth Systems. Plappert, who is a member of the Science National Honor Society, decided on that major after listening to a guest speaker at her NHS induction ceremony her junior year.
“He was talking about new energy sources, which is something we really need right now,” she said. “I’m a woman in science, and there’s not many of (us). I really like science, so why not embrace it.”
Plappert takes that same passion she has for science onto the athletic field where she is fiercely competitive.
“She’s passionate about everything she does because she’s putting her name on it,” Whalin said.
Off the field, Plappert is relatively soft spoken, and she describes herself as the exact opposite of her younger sister Hannah, a sophomore standout in both hockey and lacrosse as well.
“She takes more risks, and I think things through,” Plappert said. “She’s the popular girl, real talkative, and I’m a little shyer than she is. I do all my homework all the time - I’m kind of a nerd.”
Despite their differences, Plappert points to her younger sister as her undisputed best friend.
“I’m so sad I have to go and play hockey without her next year,” Elly said. “I wish I could have played with her longer in high school.
“I feel like we meshed together. We have different personalities, but at the same time, we’re the same. The combination is just good.”
It was not an uncommon sight to see a Plappert assisting a Plappert for a goal on either the hockey or lacrosse fields. Given a choice, Elly would rather see Hannah score than herself.
“I can’t tell you how excited she is when her sister scores,” Whalin said. “Elly is the first to jump on top of her and scream, ‘That’s my sister.’
“She’s always the biggest proponent of her sister, and she’s the first person to congratulate her. It’s really exciting to see a star player like that get more excited for her sister scoring than herself.”
The special bond that exists between the two siblings was nurtured since the day Hannah was born.
“When she was born, I was pulling her along because I knew I wanted her to be my friend,” Elly said. “I would be like, ‘Come play with me’ when she was a baby and couldn’t do anything.
“I just wanted her to grow up and be my friend. Now she is grown up, and she is my friend.”
According to Elly, there is one place where the two siblings are competitive.
“In individual drills at practice – absolutely, I want to beat my sister,” she said. “In games, I love having her be so successful.
“Our famous tag line on the hockey field was ‘That’s my sister.’”
Plappert has been competing in sports for as long as she can remember. She got her first taste of competitive sports on the softball diamond but signed up for field hockey with the Doylestown Athletic Association in second grade at the encouragement of a close friend, Central Bucks East’s Erin O’Brien. It wasn’t long before she was hooked.
“It was different from everything everybody else was doing,” Plappert said. “Everyone else was playing soccer, and this was different.”
By the time she was 11 years old, Plappert was competing on the elite club circuit for the Mystix. She never stopped, and she added lacrosse to her list of passions when she began playing with Council Rock Lacrosse in fifth grade.
It’s not a coincidence that Plappert was a captain of Rock North’s hockey and lacrosse teams that won National Conference titles this year.
“In hockey, we moved her around,” Toner said. “Sometimes she was on the forward line, sometimes we had her at center mid. We asked her to play positions she wasn’t used to, but she was willing to do whatever was best for the team.”
A skilled forward, Plappert was a threat to score every time she had the ball in the circle.
“She can take the ball from the 25 of our defensive end and take it up to the circle on the other end and score if she wants to,” Whalin said. “Her drag flick is second to none. I haven’t seen a high school player do a drag flick on grass the way she does. She has that killer instinct, and she seems to find the back of the cage easily.
“I have known her since eighth grade. She always had a good shot, and everyone always watched that shot. She grew into her presence on the field. This year she took her game to the next level. She started to recognize what she had to do to be that premiere player.”
Toner – who joined Rock North’s hockey coaching staff last fall after coaching at Rock South - has watched Plappert from both sidelines.
“When I was at South, she was the kind of player – you were not going to allow her to be unmarked,” Toner said. “I thought she was a fabulous player coaching against her, and I think she’s a fabulous player coaching her.”
For Plappert, capping a stellar high school hockey career with a league title was a perfect ending.
“It was my senior year, and we finally won the league and played really well,” she said. “I will always remember playing with my sister and the girls, the dynamics of the coaches and everything that happened.
“It was just a good all-around season.”
In lacrosse this spring, Plappert contributed 37 goals, 31 assists, 45 draw controls and 36 grounds balls for a team that captured a share of the National Conference crown with Abington.
“She played great last year, but she took her game to another level this year,” Toner said. “With hockey being her main sport, she was still just as competitive in lacrosse.
“This team surprised me, and she was a huge part of the reason we were able to win the league. She competed every minute. There’s not a time when I ever thought I had to say, ‘Elly, you have to play harder.’ She just always did. You don’t get that too often, so it’s pretty impressive to see.”
“We couldn’t have asked for anything more from her,” Kacergis added. “She brings out the best in everyone else just by her positive attitude and leadership.
“She is the whole package. She has a great attitude, she works hard, she’s intelligent, and she really just wants the best for team, her family and herself. She’s just a great kid all around.”
According to Plappert, the players believed a conference title was within their grasp since defending champion Abington took a hit to graduation.
“We were thinking, ‘Now’s our chance,’ but we never expected to win as many games as we did,” she said. “I was captain with Sara Clark for both hockey and lacrosse, and we’ve been friends since fourth grade, so it was really nice.
“They’re all good girls.”
Plappert will give up lacrosse in favor of field hockey next fall at Cornell, and the decision to attend the prestigious Ivy League school was an easy one.
“We went up for a Junior Day,” she said. “I just walked on the campus, and I knew it was where I wanted to be.”
Plappert enjoyed meeting the players and coaches, and she loved the town. Although she visited Lehigh and American as well, Plappert’s decision was all but made for her when she received a very generous financial aid package from Cornell.
“I had to take the opportunity,” she said. “I couldn’t turn it down, especially from an Ivy League school.”
Although Plappert will be gone next year, it’s a safe bet she will not be forgotten.
“I feel like I’ve coached her my whole life,” Toner said. “She’s that kind of kid –there’s just something special about her. Everything everyone says about her is true.
“She really is that good of a kid and that good of a player. She made it very easy for me to make the transition from South to North.
“It’s cliché, but she is the total package. She’s a good person, a good teammate and a good friend. She genuinely loves what she’s doing, and that, to me, is amazing.”
