Tiverton field hockey player Brittany Vasconcelos, front, shown last season, is a victim of the sports cuts at URI. The All-State field hockey player has been scrambling to find an alternative plan since the university dropped field hockey.

The Journal / Bob Thayer

Like most other high school students around the state, Brittany Vasconcelos had been looking forward to April vacation.

Other than going to practice and playing a couple of games as a member of Tiverton’s girls lacrosse team, she planned to spend the rest of the week relaxing, playing some field hockey, baby-sitting for a friend’s 4-year-old and hanging out with her friends.

Those plans quickly changed, though. The All-State field hockey player hasn’t exactly been able to enjoy her days off since hearing the news that field hockey is one of the four sports, along with men’s tennis, men’s swimming and gymnastics, being dropped from the University of Rhode Island’s athletic program. Instead, she’s been scrambling to come up with a plan B now that her once-certain collegiate future has fallen victim to budget cuts.

“I know everything happens for a reason,” Vasconcelos, one of 75 athletes affected by the cuts, said earlier this week. “I just don’t really know what that is yet.”

Vasconcelos spent the last several months thinking the next phase of her life was set.

Last fall, she put the finishing touches on an outstanding high school field hockey career that included two All-State nominations and selection to the 2007 Penn Monto/NFHCA High School All-Region team.

The midfielder and captain had guided Tiverton to its second straight trip to the Division I State Championship, scoring the game-winner in the Tigers’ quadruple-overtime victory over Lincoln in the quarterfinals and then helping her team knock off two-time defending state champion Barrington in the semifinals.

After watching Vasconcelos’ semifinal performance at Cranston Stadium in October, URI coach Amanda Heryla e-mailed her the next day, saying that she wanted to make her an offer.

They arranged to meet several days later, and Vasconcelos wasted no time giving Heryla a verbal commitment to attend URI.

On Feb. 6 at Tiverton Town Hall, Vasconcelos signed a national letter of intent to attend the university, becoming the first girl from Tiverton High School to receive a Division I scholarship.

“It was just awesome,” Vasconcelos said. “It was all done. All my decisions were made. All my friends are stressed out because they don’t know where they’re going, and it was nice to know where I was going. It was all planned out . . . . Then I get a phone call.”

Vasconcelos got the word that field hockey had been dropped from Heryla at about 6 p.m. on Monday. “I didn’t even know how to react,” she said. “Everything was planned out. Then it was just, ‘Nope, it’s canceled. There’s nothing you can do.”

Now Vasconcelos feels like she’s back at square one.

Although she was planning to attend URI as much for the educational opportunity as the chance to play field hockey — and would still receive the scholarship money that had been promised to her since she has already signed her letter of intent — she doesn’t want to see her dream of playing at the collegiate level fall by the wayside.

At least temporarily, though, those plans will have to be put on hold.

Although she had met previously with the field hockey coaches at St. Michael’s and Stonehill, Vasconcelos stopped her communication with the other colleges once she decided upon URI.

Once she signed, they took her off their lists of potential candidates, as well, and have already undoubtedly made commitments to other athletes for the coming year.

“I think I’m going to go to URI for the first year because I really don’t have any other options,” said Vasconcelos, the oldest of Mario and Carolyn Vaconcelos’ three children. “From there, I’ll possibly transfer. Even if I take a year off, I hope I can play somewhere in my sophomore year. But as of now, I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Honor for Russillo

Before she began molding the careers of boys tennis players at Smithfield High School and guiding the Sentinels to five straight postseason appearances, two division titles and a Division III state runner-up finish, Liz Russillo was producing an exceptional high school and collegiate athletic career of her own.

The former Liz Lawrence was a four-year varsity player and three-time All-State tennis player at Ponaganset in the mid-1990s. She continued her playing career at Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y., where she went on to become the school record-holder for victories at both singles (42-9) and doubles (31-19).

She also holds the school record for singles wins in a season with the 12 she recorded in 2000.

The Glocester native, who now makes her home in Johnston with her husband Steve and their newborn daughter, Gabriella, was recently inducted into the Russell Sage College Athletic Hall of Fame.

cthorn@projo.com