DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706180152

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 15   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

EX-COMMODORES GO DISTANCE FOR RETIRING COACH

IT ONLY MADE SENSE to departing Maury field hockey coach Pat Panzik that she would be asked to drop by the high school to help new coach Kim Decker. After all, Panzik knew the ropes, having coached the Commodores for the last 20 years.

But that was just a guise used to deliver Panzik to Maury on Saturday, where 40 friends and former players honored her with a surprise party.

``She's definitely a mentor,'' said Barbara Monheim, an '85 graduate, who drove 10 hours from Jacksonville, Fla., for the party. ``A lot of people look to their English teacher; we all looked to our health and P.E. teacher. She coached field hockey, softball. Field hockey was my favorite. The song I always remember we sang after winning was `We are the Champions.' ''

Under Panzik, the Commodores won a lot, capped by this year's team reaching the Eastern Region semifinals for the first time in school history. Panzik, who coached softball until two years ago, put together a string of district titles dating back to 1979.

``Have you ever been in a three-car accident? That's the feeling other Eastern District teams get when they go up against our Lady Commodores, the 1979-80 district champs,'' reads a page from the 1980 yearbook.

``We put field hockey on the map,'' said Diane Bonney, the keeper on Panzik's first team. ``It was a sport girls were hesitant about playing. We were No. 1 two or three years straight.''

Bonney came to the party dressed in her keeper garb from the '70s to show how far field hockey has come since Panzik started. Now a behavior specialist, she said Panzik made an impression on her that words can't describe.

``I was the first black goalkeeper in the Eastern District and there were a lot of things she had to get me through,'' she said. ``She'd stay on the field until 10 at night rolling the ball to me, flicking it in.''

It was Bonney who coined the nickname ``Poozie,'' that has followed Panzik for 20 years.

``One day she was bringing me home from a hockey game and I said, `Miss Poop- . . . I mean Pan. Hey, I like that. Poozie Panzik.' It just flowed,'' Bonney said.

Megan Corradino drove in from Boone, N.C., and Kim Stewart flew in from Hammond, La., for Saturday's party. Both recall Panzik's zany Halloween practices whereby the coach encouraged players to dress up and then awarded prizes for the best costumes.

``Every year,'' Stewart said, ``somebody would dress up as Poozie.''

The party was the brainchild of Booker T. coach Mary Lib, also a former student of Panzik's. Last November, players on this year's Maury team planned a party for Panzik, but Lib had Final Four soccer tickets and couldn't attend, so she decided on her own shindig.

A 1985 Maury grad who played field hockey at Old Dominion from 1985-89, Lib said, ``I chose field hockey because of my experience with her.''

Last fall's district Coach of the Year, Panzik had said she is retiring because, ``It's time. I'm 65, so why hang in there?''

The first order of fun on her list, she said, is to go skiing, and Lib and friends have made that easier. They presented Panzik with a $1,000 ski trip to Silver Creek along with a caricature, grape juice in a champagne bottle and a silver bowl inscribed with ``Pat Panzik. Maury High School. 1969-1997.''

Monheim said she remained in close contact with Panzik, who attended her wedding last year. ``I missed her,'' Monheim said, ``as soon as I graduated.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP

Pat Panzik, center, hugs Diane Bonney, the first goalkeeper for

Maury's field hockey team, at her party. Bonney wears gear like she

used 20 years ago.

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