Field Hockey Teams To Converge On Enfield For Amy Romano Memorial

ENFIELD, CT — For about five hours this coming Sunday, Cookie Bromage Field at Enfield High School will be adorned with Cougars, Tigers and Bears (oh my! but no Lions), two different sets of Falcons and plenty of Avengers, Lancers, Knights, Spartans and Warriors, among others.

A total of 17 high school field hockey teams representing three New England states will gather for the 13th annual Amy Romano Memorial Field Hockey Scrimmage. The event kicks off just prior to 10 a.m. with a brief ceremony honoring Romano, a beloved athlete, coach and teacher who died unexpectedly at age 40 on Jan. 11, 2007.

Schools from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island will be playing in the scrimmage, during which each team plays three 7-on-7 games on half-size turf fields and an 11-on-11 contest on a regulation-size grass field. Games are 20 minutes in duration.

Team entrance fees and fan donations support the Amy Romano Memorial Scholarship, a $1,000 annual award to a deserving student-athlete from Enfield High School. The scholarship is administered by the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame.

Romano, who in 1997 joined her dad Tony as the first father-daughter Hall of Fame duo in Enfield, was a standout multi-sport athlete at Enrico Fermi High School. She was an All-State selection in both field hockey and softball, compiling an 18-0 regular season record as a softball pitcher in her senior year.

She continued to play both sports at Assumption College (now University) in Worcester, Mass., earning All-Northeast Region honors three times in field hockey and compiling 40 collegiate wins in softball, including a no-hitter against Winthrop College. She was inducted into the Assumption Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, and is also a member of the Connecticut Softball Hall of Fame.

Romano was an elementary educator, serving as head teacher at the former Thomas Alcorn School in Thompsonville. She also coached field hockey at her old high school in the early 2000s, and was a member of the Hall of Fame board of directors.

Following her passing, the Hall of Fame board established the memorial scholarship in her name. The initial recipient was Erica Pyznar, who played for Romano at Fermi, then literally followed in her footsteps by playing field hockey at Assumption.

Pyznar and her mother, Marie, decided to try organizing a field hockey tournament in Romano's memory. The Friends of Amy Romano Sports Committee was formed in 2009, and the inaugural event was celebrated late that summer.

Participating schools from Massachusetts this year are Longmeadow (two teams), Minnechaug Regional (two teams) and Tantasqua, while East Greenwich will be traveling from Rhode Island. Connecticut is represented by Avon, Granby Memorial, Guilford, Haddam-Killingworth, Mercy, Newington, Somers, Suffield, Westbrook and host Enfield (two teams).

Concessions will be available throughout the day. There is no admission charge to attend the games, but free will donations will gladly be accepted at the door. All proceeds benefit the scholarship fund.