About 60,000 people play field hockey in high school. At Clarkston High School, 25 people play, and the majority of those players just joined the sport. Although people often struggle with learning new things, the new players on the team have picked up things quickly, with significant improvement from the beginning of the season.
Many people aren’t familiar with the sport of field hockey, “Field Hockey is a team sport with positioning much like soccer where there are forwards, midfielders, and defensive players,” junior and co-team captain Elly Ryan states.
The ball is made of solid plastic and is about the size of a lacrosse ball, and the stick is wooden and has a sort of candy cane hook on the end. There are ten field players and one goalie; both teams are trying to get the ball within the shooting circle which is marked 16 yards away from the goal. You cannot shoot the ball from outside the shooting circle, but once in the circle, attackers are encouraged to hit the ball towards the net no matter what, even if they miss, even if they won’t get a good hit, they just shoot the ball.
The required equipment is just shin guards and a mouth guard, but player Juliet Hardin, along with a few other players, choose to wear protective goggles to keep their head safe.
“Since joining the Clarkston Field Hockey team, I’ve had a couple injuries,” freshman Juliet Hardin states. “The first one was I got hit in the head with a ball…my third one I got a stick to the face after my friend was hitting, and I was standing behind her. That one was the most serious one; it split my head open [a cut above her left eye].”
“Our team has improved so much from the start of the season and I only see it getting better,” Hardin said, with the winning streak of five games backing her statement up. Reflecting after the teams win against Regina on 9/8, Coach Cary Exline points out that the team has done a great job adjusting to working together and refining their skills to become the best they can be.
“The biggest weakness on the team is the lack of experience because there are just so many new people,” senior and co-team captain Jenna Brown states. “The biggest strength on the team is the drive to do better because I think that everybody works really hard to try and improve and just in the couple of games we’ve had, we’ve seen a drastic improvement.”
Whether they don’t know where they’re supposed to be or aren’t sure what call the referee just made, the team keeps going. They don’t stop, they put in 110% effort all of the time and it shows. With the help of head coach, Cary Exline, assistant coach Ryan Koral, or the “on field coaches” team captains Jenna Brown and Elly Ryan, the team makes quick adjustments and takes the advice of their veterans.
