As of this year, there is a new field hockey club team for the school’s junior varsity and varsity field hockey players.
The team is not run through the school, but rather is a club team of the city of Los Altos. The CCS official rules do not allow sports to hold mandatory practices if it is not the scheduled season for the sport.
There have been talks about having a club team in prior years, but the former varsity coach had other commitments such as coaching track at the high school during the field hockey off-season.
“I would have loved to play club previously with the high school,” senior Jackie Radford said. “It will be great for the girls to play together on the off season and to actually compete against teams. It will be a really good gauge of progress [during the season] for them to play teams that they have played before.”
The new varsity coach, Mary Donahue, specifically works on field hockey throughout the year and created this team with the intention of allowing the field hockey girls to play and practice with each other. Having played college field hockey and on a club team for 15 years, Donahue knows that it is important for a team to practice together as much as they can.
“A lot of the kids don’t have the opportunity to play year round,” Donahue said. “It’s a sport that requires a lot of skills; it’s difficult to get a lot better with the short season and we hope to build our team chemistry. By working on getting better skills and getting to know our team, we’ll be able to compete better.”
Due to busy schedules, the team is currently practicing on Sundaysmornings at the high school from 9 to 11. Currently the team is trying to get practices in the gym for the rest of the week so they will be able to practice more in the future.
While the team may not be as formal as bigger club teams in the Bay Area, Donahue does not find this to be a problem.
“It’s really more for the kids to play more and enjoy it and learn more about the sport as we go,” Donahue said.
The team competes in tournaments with other club teams and is participating in a six-side tournament on Saturday, March 7, at UC Berkley.
For students interested, the high school holds a beginners’ field hockey camp at the school starting the second week in June. The camp’s purpose is for beginners to have a place to try out the sport without any pressure and see if they like it.