The plexiglass windows and chipped cinder blocks on Bernard “Bunky” Gladieux’s garage are a testament to the proclivity and depth of his daughter Sophia’s field hockey passions.
From the time she first picked up a stick to when she became one of the nation’s highest-scoring players nine years later, Sophia took aim at the cage-sized rectangle drawn on the side of that building.
Slap shots, flicks, reverse chips, fired in rapid succession and over long sessions, made the structure appear as though it had been bombarded.
“She pulverized the cinder blocks,” Bunky said. “They collapsed.”
The glass window panes?
Never stood a chance.
“Two doors, five windows,” Bunky explained. “She broke them all … every single window in the garage.”
The relentless barrage contained a fair share of errant shots – Sophia Gladieux admits she wasn’t the best when she first took up the sport.
In due time her aim became true; she finished her career at Oley Valley with 206 goals, fourth-most ever by an American high school player.
“Her finishing skills were something Berks County had never seen before,” said Lynx coach Tiffany Cappellano.
“Incredible” is the way Charlene Morett-Curtiss, Penn State’s field hockey coach, describes her prized recruit, one of five finalists for the Reading Eagle’s female Athlete of the Year award, which will be announced June 30.
“Her impressive skill set consists of deception, quickness and accuracy,” Morett-Curtiss said. “When you watch her play the first thing you notice is her creative stick work; the second thing is her lethal backhand.”
It wasn’t like that at first. Sophia was much smaller than the other girls – a “peanut,” as she recalled – and not nearly as skilled. She found herself on the bench way too often.
“That motivated me,” she said. “I didn’t like being bad.”
And so she went about taking down Bunky’s garage, stroke by stroke.
“Rain, shine, snow,” he said.
She watched YouTube videos of top European players to learn the techniques that would help make her one of the top-ranked high school players in the nation and a Division I recruiting target as a grade-schooler.
“It was repetition,” she said of creating an unmatched skill set. “Hundreds and hundreds of shots a day, until it literally became second nature.”
Her biggest obstacle was Casey, the pug mix puppy that would steal the ball from her as she practiced. It was annoying at first, but turned out to be a blessing.
“That’s when I learned how to keep the ball away from people,” she said. “That changed my whole game and gave me confidence to do a pull around somebody. I wouldn’t have gotten my stick skills if it wasn’t for her. She really upped my level of play.”
By the time she was a sixth-grader she already had caught the eye of Morett-Curtiss, not to mention other coaches from top college programs.
She was invited to an Under-17 USA Futures tryout at age 12 and competed against Division I-bound players four and five years older.
A year later at a camp at Duke, she and Bunky were invited into the head coach’s office and told she would be a great asset for the program.
“That was crazy,” Gladieux said. “I was like 13.”
To the amazement of older players, she was air dribbling down the field as though she had been born with a stick in her hands.
“She was on the radar of the field hockey community at an early age,” Cappellano said.
Gladieux was a known quantity years before she would arrive at Oley Valley and pour in 32 goals as a freshman – second in the league.
She had become obsessed with field hockey, and it paid immediate dividends. That dedication also came at a cost. The 24/7 commitment became overwhelming at times. She found herself nearly burned out before reaching high school and realized she needed to pump the brakes.
“My whole childhood was strictly field hockey,” she admitted. “Sometimes that got really tiring. I wasn’t enjoying field hockey at all. That was really scary. I didn’t want to hate hockey.”
She said she felt she was missing out on being a girl, going to sleepovers and parties and trips to the beach. She was invited to Futures camps, the pipeline to an Olympic roster spot, but declined the chance to play on national teams.
“She sacrificed so much (for hockey),” said Bunky. “I could tell it was taking its toll.”
Gladieux committed to Penn State as a sophomore and, with much of the pressure from national commitments lifted, thoroughly enjoyed her last three seasons playing for the Lynx. She led them to four straight Berks championships, two district championships, two state title-game appearances and a 100-8 record.
She was a four-time All-State pick, a three-time All-American and the MAX Pennsylvania Player of the Year as a senior.
And then there were all those goals. She broke the Berks career record – by 75 goals. She put 66 into the net her senior year, twice as many as Berks’ No. 2 scorer and fourth-most in the nation.
“Numbers don’t lie,” Cappellano said. “Her stat of scoring is pretty incredible. Her quickness and ability to eliminate is nothing that I’ve ever seen. In 14 years of coaching I have never encountered an athlete as skilled and/or coordinated. She can move and manipulate a ball. It’s fun to watch.”
When she was a little girl, Sophia Gladieux looked at the high school players at Oley as though they were rock stars. Then she became one.
“She’s really elevated the game in Berks County,” Cappellano said. “Not many players have the ability to do that, to have girls from other schools watching her and wanting to be like her. She’s a special type of player.”
