A little bit of WVC in Spain - Fronzoni among three former field hockey standouts who competed in World Cup

April Fronzoni wasn't originally on the U.S. National Field Hockey Team.

Sixteen players were selected to go to the World Cup in Madrid, Spain -- and Fronzoni wasn't one of them. Her parents had purchased plane tickets, in hopes that she would be one of the final two selected just days before the team was to fly.

"That day I got selected, it was a huge weight off my shoulders," said Fronzoni, a Wyoming Valley West graduate and 2004 graduate of the University of Michigan. "I know it's about myself; I always have, but I don't want to let anyone down.

"My parents had the tickets and everything booked. My dad said, 'Do not worry about us.' In the back of my head, it was like, 'Oh my God. If I don't make it, my parents lose money, and I let them down.'"

Fronzoni did more than make the cut in mid-September. She scored a goal in a 3-1 win over South Africa in the team's first win of the World Cup.

The United States' team entered as the 11th seed, but finished sixth with a 3-3-1 record.

"There were the individual accomplishments like, 'You didn't want to take me in the beginning,'" Fronzoni said. "It was proving myself, producing goals. But the team accomplishments we did made it worthwhile."

Fronzoni wasn't the only former player from the Wyoming Valley Conference to play in the World Cup. Crestwood graduate Sara Silvetti and Wyoming Seminary graduate Lauren Powley were also in Madrid for the World Cup that took place from Sept. 27 to Oct. 8.

Silvetti started every game on defense. Powley and Fronzoni weren't starters, but Powley did play at center-mid in every game. Fronzoni, a forward, played in the six of the team's seven games. Fronzoni has been on the U.S. national team since 1998, when she led the Under-16 squad with four goals in the International Easter Tournament in Valkenswaard, The Netherlands. Powley, a 2006 University of Maryland graduate, has been on the national team since 2001, and Silvetti, a 2005 University of Maryland graduate, has been on the team for two years.

Fronzoni's homecoming was bittersweet. She went to the door and was expecting her dog, Prince, to be there. He wasn't. He passed away the day before her parents flew to Spain for the World Cup, but they didn't tell her.

"I went to the World Cup, had a fabulous time," she said. "And while I was gone, my dog died. And no one told me!

"They knew I would flip out. They knew that I was over there for a job to do, and they didn't want me to be distracted."

Now that jetlag has subsided, it's back to the real world in her hometown of Larksville. For a little while, at least. From January until October, the women reside in Virginia Beach, where the training facility is located, although most of those 10 months are spent traveling.

The women are guaranteed a job during the slim offseason -- at Home Depot. It's stereotypically a place for men, but it is an Olympic sponsor.

"I work in hardware," Fronzoni said, admitting that she hardly knows anything about it. She has been known to tell customers that it's only her second day and sends them off to another employee. "But keys. I can make keys like the best of them. I went to four years of college, and I make keys."

But she gets to play field hockey, and maybe she'll make the Olympic team for 2008 in China. Then those keys might be something more than just a piece of metal that unlocks a door.

"Six a.m., six miles every Wednesday and Saturday," said Fronzoni of her training regimen. "It was hell. Hell. I'm not gonna lie. It was not fun at all. But I wouldn't change it for the world."