Courtney Tomchik picked up quite a few awards as she left Broadneck a month ago to get ready for a new lacrosse career at the University of Pennsylvania. The three-sport standout was named the Phoebe Kelly Broadneck Athlete of the Year after a first-team All-Metro lacrosse season, a second-team All-Metro field hockey season and an admirable debut on the indoor track team. US Lacrosse twice named her a regional All-American as well as an Academic All-American. Tomchik, 18, will polish off her high school career with an appearance at Saturday's Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic at Towson University. Graduating with a 4.26 grade-point average, she plans a career in business and has been accepted to Penn's prestigious Wharton School.
Question: When did you start playing lacrosse?
Answer: Lacrosse I picked up in kindergarten. I wasn't supposed to be playing that young, but my friend Shannon Hanratty's mom, Joan, was coaching and the girls were a year or two years older than me ÃÂÃÂ and she allowed us on the team. It was hard just because I was so young.
Q: Did you like lacrosse anyway?
A: It's kind of funny. I didn't really like it, and I got hurt one game or one practice. I got hit in the face with a ball and I was hysterical. I was crying. I was like, "I hate lacrosse," and I wanted to quit, but Miss Joan would award a girl once a week the Golden Shoe Award for being cooperative, having a great game or what not. When I told her I wanted to quit, that I hated lacrosse, she said, "Oh, Courtney, that's a shame because you're getting the Golden Shoe Award today." After that, I lit up and I was like, "Never mind. I love lacrosse. It's great."
Q: When did lacrosse become the sport for you?
A: It had always been the primary sport. I got into gymnastics for a while in elementary school, but I was never serious about that. Lacrosse started to pick up in seventh and eighth grade when club lacrosse started getting heated.
Q: What was it like to run indoor track for the first time as a senior?
A: It was exciting just being a rookie on the indoor track team. I never knew anything about it. I just ran in field hockey and lacrosse. I'm really glad I did it. It was really hard, definitely pushed me and made me realize there was more to running than just running up and down the lacrosse field.
Q: How about your speed? Did that play a role in choosing lacrosse?
A: Speed is definitely what I'm known for. It's something I'm thankful to have. My dad [Mark Tomchik] believes it's from him, but no one really knows. He always says he was a speedster when he was younger, and I guess I can see that. I love just getting the ball and running. That's not the only thing I do, but I love running.
Q: You have quite a combination of speed and quickness, but until recently you were almost too quick sometimes. How did that finally come together?
A: This year I improved. As a freshman and sophomore, and even last year, I would make a move to the goal, but I would sort of be too quick for my own feet and not make it as smooth. I learned to adjust my quickness to my speed. Track may have helped that, but I really don't know.
Q: What are you looking forward to about the Under Armour All-America game?
A: The competition. It'll be tough to play against all those girls that are named the best in their areas from all over the country. I recognize a ton of names. There's not many from Anne Arundel County, but I've probably played or seen in camps or tournaments the vast majority of them. It should be really fun. I've already talked to one of my good friends who lives up in New York, Taylor D'Amore, who I became friends with through the recruiting process and I'll get to play against her.
Q: Are you playing this summer?
A: Yes. After the Under Armour game, I'm playing in a tournament down in Florida. I think it's called the [US Lacrosse] Champions Showcase at ESPN Wide World of Sports. I'll go down there with my mom and grandmom. We'll get there early or stay an extra day and go to a [theme] park or two, try to make a minivacation out of that. Every Wednesday night, I'll play in a summer league.
Q: What is your career goal?
A: I still don't have a strong sense of what I want to do regarding business other than learning the foundation the first couple years at Wharton, possibly going into the field of marketing and advertising. I'm sort of interested in how businesses market themselves, mostly big companies. If I can, I would like to stay involved with sports somehow, whether it's Under Armour, Nike or some other big sports business.
Q: Your final two colleges were Penn and Duke. Why did you pick Penn?
A: Mostly because I felt really comfortable on the campus with the coaches, with the team. The coaches were really honest from the very beginning. They told me what they saw in me and what they believed could come out of me as a player and a person. All of that combined gave me confidence knowing that would be a good choice for me. The education was what came first.
Q: How much did such a prestigious business school as Wharton have to do with that?
A: I didn't really know much about it until I started looking at Penn. My dad was, "Well, you know their business school's the best." I said, "Hmm, maybe I'll think about that." I really hadn't made a choice in major from the beginning. I wasn't thinking business was what I wanted to study. I just thought if it could work and I could get accepted, I would try it out and it just happened to work.