As part of an increasing effort to elevate the competitiveness of the field hockey program, coach Patti Klecha-Porter and 22 of her returning players spent ten days in June competing against some of the best club teams in Holland. Though Klecha-Porter has taken squads to places like Barbados and Bermuda in previous years, this was the first time the program visited Europe, which has traditionally been home to some of the world’s greatest field hockey teams.
The Lady Cards played six games and participated in four practice clinics during their European stay. They also found time to travel through Holland and briefly venture into Belgium and Germany.
The trip was coordinated through Harvard Sports Management Inc., a company founded in 1993 to help youth and amateur soccer programs experience European culture while matching up against international competition.
“It was a fantastic trip,” Klecha-Porter said. “We toured the Cathedral of Cologne in Germany, visited the burial site of American soldiers killed during the invasion of Europe at the World War II Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial, and even watched the Olympic Torch pass through the Belgian city of Antwerp on its way to Athens. And those were just the morning and afternoon trips we took before preparing for matches at night.”
The club field hockey circuit in Holland is very competitive, made up of teams featuring players mostly in their mid-to late twenties. Almost all of the players start playing field hockey at the age of five to seven, giving them the advantage of time and experience over the American girls who generally pick up the sport in middle school or high school. Though the trip gave the Cardinal women a chance to hone their skills against these more advanced players, it was the turf surface they were playing on.
As the sport grows in popularity in the United States, the conversion from grass to turf has begun to take hold at the university level. Seven schools in the NESCAC alone have a turf surface as their home field, with several other schools already constructing turf fields of their own. When the league playoffs begin in November, schools with turf fields are traditionally chosen as host sites, which give teams with more experience on turf a distinct advantage over teams practicing and playing on grass. Co-captains Jen Wasserman ’05 and Megan Gauvey-Kern ’05 believe the team’s trip to Europe will prove to be quite beneficial.
“The trip was essential for this program,” Gauvey-Kern said. “We’ve had really talented people in the past, but never had the opportunity to elevate our turf game, and that held us back. I played on teams here [Wesleyan] that were very strong, but ended up losing lopsided playoff games on turf. We were just out matched on the surface, but Holland has given us the confidence to play well on turf. There will be no ‘turf curse’ for Wesleyan anymore”
“The trip really gave us a chance to get the jump on some teams,” Wasserman said. “But as a team with so little turf experience, it ultimately helped us catch up to other teams who’ve had more time on the surface.”
Squaring off with regional teams in a tune-up tournament held at Trinity’s turf complex on Sept. 5, the Cardinal women demonstrated the value of extra time spent on turf, as the team held five opponents scoreless, and walked away from the one-day event with three wins and two ties to their credit. Saturday’s loss to Williams was originally supposed to be played on their newly installed turf surface, but poor construction caused the field to buckle, rendering it unplayable.
Wesleyan’s next match is at home against Trinity this Saturday at 11 a.m.
Leave a Reply