My Thoughts

I’ve been playing field hockey for a long time, and one thing I’ve noticed along is that there is not a single portal or place where we can get information on events that are going on in the local field hockey community.

Frantically texting teammates and coaches days before a tournament are all a part of my schedule before a tournament. While discussing this problem, my dad and I thought of an idea, a website / portal that keeps Bay Area community up-to-date on all local field hockey tournaments as well as big international hockey news. Also this is the place where we can provide more information on High School hockey season, different clubs around here; where to start for first time hockey players and so on.

This idea connects two of my hobbies field hockey and curiosity to know more about coding. Not only it will help me to acquire new skills, but I really think it will help everyone here too. Although this whole website is a work in progress, I’m still adamant of making this vision of mine a reality.

Will keep you posted on as I make enough progress to share this portal.

As an 8th grader who has had a great passion for sport of field hockey, it is devastating to know that your school district does not have field hockey as a sport to play in high school. Unfortunately just like any other schools in our school district, our high school doesn’t offer this sport!

I’ve been playing field hockey since the age of five at club level. When I was 7, I played my first championship game at a prestigious CalCup tournament, then it began to take my love for this sport seriously. In the intense finals, hearing crowd cheering our team, my name is something I will never forget. And yes we won championship, and my contribution was highlight of the match!

That’s when I thought I would like to play this game as much as possible. Since then my dream has always been to play field hockey for an elite D1 college team. And in order to achieve this I’m working hard both academically and at sport level. I’m going to need hours and hours of practice all through the year to get better at the game. Right now this is not possible as club has off season between September through January, as that’s the time high school field season is in action in other school districts.

I’ve always completely devoted myself to this sport and as a result was selected into the U-14 National Futures Championship. Only eleven players were selected from California, including me! Playing the National Championship with players from other regions was truly and eye opening experience. I realized that I’ve raise my game to few levels up if I want to compete with peers. Then I know that I had to play for high school in order to compete with others and level up my game.

In the absence of field hockey as a official sport for our high school, I was planning to start a field hockey club at my school. But soon I realized it’s more than difficult to do this as there is not much awareness about this game. Also our plans to start a club in high school hasn’t taken any shape yet since COVID-19 has made impossible for all us to meet in person, interact; and just forget about the play sports.

I still think that I will get a chance to play field hockey in high school, win championship and take my game to whole new level. And I’m determined to make this a reality. I think I just need to be creative in finding the ways to make it happen.

cheers,
Adya

A few days ago, I found out that Stanford University is going to cut 11 varsity sports from its athletics program. Unfortunately, one of the sports that are being cut is field hockey. As many of you know, my blog is mainly focused on my journey as a field hockey player; my attempts to introduce this sport into our high school here in California and go beyond!

Speaking of California, we used to have only four colleges that had the Women’s Field Hockey Team and play in the D1 league. A year and a half back, the University of Pacific terminated their Field Hockey program due to budget cuts ($1 million deficit). While we are not recovered from that loss, this news from Stanford Administration surprised all of us!

Now this leaves only 2 colleges that offer varsity team for field hockey. And that’s the problem! This is going to cause a huge setback in the exposure of field hockey here in California. This may even cause UC Berkley and UC Davis (the other two colleges which offer this sport in D1 league) to close their field hockey programs. Stanford college is setting a wrong precedent here!

A Stanford field hockey alumni and dear coach of mine, Elise Ogle has started a petition to save field hockey at Stanford. This petition has lots of information on what you can do to save Stanford Field Hockey. This petition has so far received more than 15,000+ signatures. Let us put all our efforts into saving this program and ecosystem around it. Your few minutes can make wonders. Together we can make it happen!

In order to start a field hockey team at my school, the first step of my plan to start a field hockey club in our school. Starting a club will allow people to be introduced to the sport of field hockey. Right now, I know 3 people who play field hockey that will be going to my high school.

However, to start an actual field hockey team, you need around 15/16 people as we play the 11v11 game. Making a field hockey club would help grow more interest in this sport. Furthermore, the more students about this game, chances are high that more number of people will try out for the school team. And in turn, this will help us making a field hockey team a reality though it will be unofficial. This would be a huge step towards showing FUSD and my school; why we should introduce this beautiful game here in Fremont!

Over last week I’ve introduced this game to a few of my classmates and they liked it; so hoping we get many more sign ups in the near future!

This is my first post and I want to write about a sport that is so dear to me!

As a little girl, I had always wanted to have a special thing, something I was good at, something that would make me unique from the rest of the people I knew. I had tried a plethora of extracurriculars. These ranged from ballet, gymnastics, tennis, swimming and so much more. I was on the hunt for the activity that I was passionate about. One fine day in first grade, our family friend introduced me to the amazing sport, field hockey. At first, I despised this sport, the early morning practices, getting out of cozy bed in winter days, and exhausting workouts were too much to handle!

However, everything changed when my parents took me to my very first tournament. The Spring Fling Tournament is one of the small tournaments that took place here in the Bay Area. Since I barely paid attention during practices, I was a bench player. Then during one game, I was subbed in and made my first goal. As soon as the ball hit the back of the goal post, a warm feeling filled my body, and I felt astoundingly proud of myself. My parents’ cheers from the sideline echoed in my head. I then knew I loved this sport. Ever since that tournament, I’ve constantly pushed myself to excel in this amazing sport.

While I was in the 3rd grade, I had an astounding realization that I want to play D1 college field hockey. Playing for an elite team as well as getting a world-renowned education is one of my biggest dreams. It’s a goal that I’ve wanted to achieve no matter what obstacles came in front of me. However, soon I will face the largest obstacle yet.

I’ve been playing club level field hockey for almost 7 years now and I’m proud to say that I was selected for the U14 National Futures Championship last year. I’d the best experience playing with the best in the USA in my age group! Also, I’ve realized, playing field hockey in high school is a vital necessity in order to be recruited to play for a D1 field hockey colleges. Unfortunately, my high school doesn’t have a Jr. Varsity or a Varsity field hockey team. After many nights of complaining and whining, my dad and I decided to take matters in our own hands. We planned to find out ways we can introduce field hockey in my school. Since this requires effort from many, I’m finding like-minded friends who are interested in forming a team in our school. We’re working with other players, parents who are equally enthusiastic to make this happen. If this happens, it’s because we worked hard together to make our plan successful. Right now we are trying to arrange meetings with various school representatives and parents. It’s a lot more involved process than I thought earlier. I will be documenting my journey as well as write on many other topics here on my blog.

So welcome to my blog and yes thank you for reading!