Each year, participation in JV field hockey has continued to increase, this season’s team being the largest in coach Sydney Keith’s four years of coaching, she said.
(Photo by Alan Zhang)
“A lot of our girls are really good about getting the word out to their friends and people from other sports, and they come out for hockey and come participate,” Keith said. “It just keeps growing, which is great.”
In part, the team continues to grow because various aspects of field hockey make it appealing to prospective athletes, forward, freshman Kaia McNeill said. Field hockey is exciting to play and useful for building athletic skill, McNeill added.
“It’s gaining popularity since it’s technically a cut sport, but a lot of people are able to make the team, and it’s really fun,” McNeill said. “It’s basically soccer with a stick, but it’s super fun to play since you can learn a bunch of different skills, and it helps you gain more speed.”
Additionally, the field hockey team is supportive of beginners, making it an inviting sport to join, forward, freshman Emry Borges said.
“Our coaches here at HHS are really nice, and you can get on the team easily,” Borges said. “It’s just an easy, fun sport that is really welcoming for everybody.”
With a large team and new players, Keith said it can be a challenge to give everyone tailored coaching and equal playing time. In order to make the sport fair for all players, Keith said she tracks how much athletes have played and rotates them between games.
“It’s important to me, down at this level, before they go to varsity, that they have that experience,” Keith said. “So I really try to have an equitable approach to playing time and to attention of skills and building their foundation for when they do get to varsity.”
On the other hand, having a larger team can be advantageous, as it allows for more flexibility when making player substitutions in a game, Keith said.
“We always have girls there to help back up their team because during the fall season, especially flu season, there’s always injuries [and sickness], ” Keith said. “Having a large team really gives [us] that good buffer to make sure that we’re not stretched thin and that they can come out here and support their team.”
The larger team creates a strong community between players as well, allowing them to form valuable connections for when they move on to varsity, Keith said.
“The [extra] girls that we have on JV [are] going to help build our varsity team as well,” Keith said. “It’s always an advantage to also have our varsity team have more players going into it that have experience and feel comfortable [after] playing together for a year or two on JV.”
