Welcome to the Team
Being a freshman is difficult as it is – adjusting to your new surroundings, taking new courses, and making new friends. Many add to this burden by trying to play a sport, too. Who could manage? The freshmen on the field hockey team are having no problems adjusting thanks to all of their new friends and the family bond of the team.
“When I am playing field hockey, I feel like a totally different person. I play aggressively, like my friends and coach tell me to,” Christine Quigley shared. A sport really can change people. It changes their attitude, personality, even their confidence; it can turn a kid from shy to more outgoing.
Some girls on the team have been playing for a couple years while others have just a couple months’ experience. We all have shown remarkable promise and abilities over the course of the season.
The Key to a Team
Teamwork is a huge part of all sports, but field hockey takes teamwork very seriously. The Highlander teams all have a strong bond, due to everyone on the team working together. “Our team bond is very close not just with our individual teams but throughout the whole program,” said Glenna Dunlop.
Our teams do have strong bonds, due to players trying to make new friends and all sharing at least one thing in common…Field Hockey! But we also have to thank our pasta and team bonding parties, which help form the strong connections. We all learn to trust one another enough and talk to one another, making friends on different levels of the program. Most of the girls owe our friendships to the season. This sport has pretty much brought everybody together as big family. Daniella Rodas believes, “We’ve all grown together and bonded so much. We’ve really become a family.”
Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone
The freshmen girls joined the team at many different comfort levels. Some people play a position that they have played since elementary school, others play a new position that the coach has told them to play and some are novices still learning the game. Eventually, we all come out of our zones and try new things.
Mollie Brawley is a perfect example of one of those people. “I never thought I’d be goalie but ever since I tried that position I love it. I hope to keep playing it through the rest of high school.” Mollie came into the season expecting to play another year of defense, but not in the goal. Goalie is definitely not an easy position to take on. It requires a lot of dedication, dedication Mollie has shown throughout the season.
On the field, there are several people who play whatever position, whenever asked, because they do what they can to step outside of their comfort levels and try something new.
Keeping it “Real”
Laura Freedman, a freshman on the JV team, explained that she enjoyed having different grade levels being coaches for the day. On those practice days, when a grade level coaches the team, it is exciting because we never know what to expect when it comes to the different team members.
Like many sports we take buses to away games. Those bus rides are always a surprise because some days we all sit and talk amongst ourselves; then there are those days where we all break out to the latest hit and the classics.
The Results of Hard Work
Hard work really does pay off in the long run. All of the running, sprints, and competition days improved our team’s abilities. Sure the team hasn’t won every single game, but we have won three games of which we are very proud. Our first win of the season came at our first official home game. We won with a score of 3-0 against Riverdell. Our second win was against Riverdell as well, but on their field. Ending in our favor, with a score of 3-2, it was a close game and it definitely kept everybody on their toes. Our third win was against Northern Highlands; we had a score of 1-0. We are very proud of all of our wins, because we didn’t think we had it in us, but we did! All it took was hard work, dedication, and a lot of teamwork.
