By: Julia Lopo ’23
The girl’s Varsity Field Hockey team has been fortunate enough to kick off this year’s season with good weather, new talent, and surprisingly, a few more subs on the bench. Last year’s season was very strenuous for all the players, due to the full-length games they had to play without pauses to catch their breath. However, this allowed the returning players to build a lot of stamina and endurance. The relationship between the returning and new players creates support many players can lean on with our new “buddy system”. This system pairs a returning student with a new student so they can have a number-one cheerleader on and off the field. We also break into our buddy groups for many drills, like partner passes and they are a great system to double-check gear and jewelry on game days.
This season, the morals have been really high, and though we took a few hard losses our first few games, we have started to build up a good defense decreasing the gap in scores by every game. This is very important as it has built our confidence and sportsmanship as a very small team. This was especially remarkable in our game against Holderness where we put up a remarkable fight to the point of injuring a few players. As a result of many injuries, we had to play two games lacking a few teammates, and those who played showed resilience in having to play without subs and maybe adapt to new positions. Those who still continued to play whilst injured have been amazing at showing up to practices and showing a lot of spirit for our team.
Despite the concussions, bruises, lumps, and even a shattered pinky, our team has never been so driven to put up their greatest fight in the coming games of their season. Creating a bond with our team, as well as having good sportsmanship, has been the most important to our team so far. The girls are already looking forward to their next and last home games; The Pink Game against New Hampton, which supports breast cancer awareness, and our senior game in November to celebrate our seniors in their next steps.
Pictured below: Photographs from the Hebron vs. Berwick game at Berwick 10/22/22
Taken by: Ines Lopo ’25
