Sussex Tech alumni and former Clarksville resident Harper Cornell has always had success picking her number for sports teams.
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Harper Cornell’s high school alma mater retired her collegiate number in a ceremony just before Sussex Tech’s championship game against Caravel Academy.
In Little League, she’d picked the number 13, which has been deemed so unlucky that some older buildings don’t have it listed as a floor. But, for Cornell, it was very lucky. She belted a grand-slam homerun in her first Little League at-bat and, on that basis, stuck with 13 all the way through high school.
Cornell switched to 22 after making York College’s softball team in her sophomore year, though. They didn’t have the number 13, and she also liked even numbers and double digits. The number 22 was available, so she snagged it.
After three years of collegiate softball at York College, Cornell earned third-team All-American honors in her senior year. And, in honor of her efforts, her high school alma mater retired her collegiate number in a ceremony leading up to Sussex Tech’s championship game against Caravel Academy, taking 22 from their own roster.
“This is a great honor that Tech would retire my college number,” Cornell said this week.
“I wasn’t the best player in high school and it took a lot of dedication to get me where I am today. But it shows that if you’re willing to put the time and effort into something, then good things will happen,” she added.
She noted that the Lady Ravens won only two games her sophomore year, which incidentally was coach John Marvel’s inaugural season as skipper of the team. Cornell said the program was still growing at that time but they were improving under their new coach.
The next year, the Lady Ravens doubled their win total to four games and finally reached .500 winning percentage in her senior year, which was a great accomplishment, according to Cornell.
Cornell began playing softball when she was about 9 or 10, which nowadays is considered a late start, since the Little League program and travel ball have become so popular. The feeder programs were in their infancy when she began playing, according to Cornell, and now girls begin the sport as young as 6 or 7. The results of this early beginning have fueled the success of the current Lady Ravens softball team, which took a 6-0 championship win over Caravel on June 2.
“Our program definitely wasn’t what it is now,” Cornell said. “We were still building a team and winning two games or so a year. And, compared to now, it’s a big deal if they lose two games a year. But you can definitely see the progress that the program has made, and I was glad that I could be apart of it because softball has made me the person that I am today.
“The drive and competitive edge that sports have given me will allow me to do whatever I want in life,” she added.
Cornell led her team in 2005, with four homeruns, 35 RBIs, 11 doubles, 66 total bases and a .584 slugging percentage.
Currently, Cornell is employed by the Edelman public relations company in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Harper was a very good player for us,” Marvel said in a phone interview following the Lady Ravens championship win over Caravel Academy. “And it was good that she was able to continue that success in college.
“And I wouldn’t be surprised to see more players from Sussex Tech follow in her footsteps,” he added.
The Lady Ravens have sent Lindsay Ellsworth to Wesley College, Bethany Pavlik to Delaware Valley and Kristen Burns to Arcadia. Kim Owens and Heather Frech will play for Del Tech next spring. Brittany Joseph is headed to Florida State University. And Cornell's sister, Hope, will play for Shippensburg.
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