Field Hockey by Casey Coleman

The summer before Freshmen year, almost everyone I knew was beyond excited to start a high school
sport. A few of my friends had decided to play field hockey although they've never played before. I was
heisitate to follow in their footsteps but made the bold decision of playing. This was one of the best
decisions I've ever made.
At the start of Freshmen year, I already had a handful of new friends that I met on the team, both in my
grade and upperclassmen. I started midfield on JV and feel in love with the sport. During the
offseason, I participated in various winter and summer clinics along with deciding to play another sport
I've never played before, lacrosse. What was different about lacrosse was that some people had years of
experience while others had none. This is why I enjoyed field hockey as much as I did because all the
girls in my grade who joined had zero experience. This made everything fair and allowed endless room
for us to get better.
Sophomore year. This was the year that I was hoping to become a swing player. A swing player is
someone who practices with the varsity team and is a sub for varsity while also getting to play JV. My
friends and I entered preseason ready to work our hardest and hope that we'd receive the position. The
weekend before tryouts, I, unfortunately, got walking pneumonia. This was a major setback which caused
me to lose my endurance and constantly need a break during tryouts. I eventually took a day off and
began to slowly recover. I was devasted as I thought that I had lost my chance to be a swing player but
as our first scrimmage approached, our coach sent out a list of who would play on what team. I logged
onto Google Classroom and saw my name under the varsity column reading, "Casey (swing)". I was
ecstatic! I was even happier as I read further down the list, to see that three of my friends got the position,
too. As the season went on I got my first goal of the season on JV and the following week my first-ever
varsity goal. I was super excited and even more so because it was during our game against Pope John.
Getting to be a swing player is one of my greatest accomplishments and I am forever thankful to be
able to be in this position. Although it's tough, it's exciting to get out of my comfort zone and push myself
to get better every day at practices and games. Field Hockey has given me some of my closest friends
and choosing to play last year has proven to be one of my best decisions.