This year’s senior-laden field hockey team at is very polite, according to head coach Betsy Smith, now in her 12th season. But that’s not necessarily a good quality to have between the lines.
In the first regular-season game this past Tuesday, the Patriots lost 4-0 to Wayland High School. Too many niceties may have been part of the problem, Smith said.
“We need to be less polite,” Smith said. “Go to the ball and just be more aggressive.”
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Perhaps the 12 or 13 seniors, in their first varsity game, were nervous. The girls were part of the 2010 squad, but as juniors they sat and watched the seniors play.
“I think we need actually to pick up the intensity,” Smith said. “Our first game didn’t go terribly as we would have liked it to go. I think it was a matter of as much basics and lack of intensity as it was anything else because we should have done better.
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“Maybe people were nervous,” Smith added.
Although the Patriots are sitting 0-1, the girls did have a good preseason, as they came into practice well conditioned.
“We’ve had some good times and the weather’s been a little bit iffy sometimes and that sometimes affects a field hockey game,” Smith said. “But kids have been great. They came to preseason in good shape. A lot of them had gone to camps over the summer so I was very pleased with them.”
Caroline Guild and Marin Epstein are this year’s captains, selected last season by the team, and Smith says she’s already confident in their leadership.
“They’ve been on duty since last fall,” Smith said. “They are great, both of them. They have a wonderful way with people, they’re both superb field hockey players, and they lead very much by example.”
Smith knows that Guild and Epstein will set good examples this season, as the Patriots are obviously looking to get a win in their next game and build off their solid preseason practices.
“Our preseasons are always devoted to basics and as soon as we feel like we’ve got the basics down then we can sort of go on to more of the strategy of the game and that sort of thing,” Smith said.
“But I always have a fair number of new people on varsity that have never played varsity, so it takes a while to get them sort of into the system.”
The team is without senior Christina Erne, its top scorer in 2010, as a late summer injury caused Erne to have season-ending knee surgery.
“It’s always hard when you get a system going that is set up around a player like her and this only happened at the end of the summer,” Smith said. “She was a good player.”
Despite the struggle of moving forward without Erne, Smith is hoping the team will improve from last season, when they finished 10-4-3. As a sixth seed, the team fell 2-0 to No. 3 Beverly High School in the quarterfinals of the MIAA North Division 1 tournament.
The Patriots are eager for their first win on Monday, when they play at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School at 4 p.m.
CONCORD-CARLISLE HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOCKEY
Coach: Betsy Smith, 12 years
Last season: 10-4-3 Lost in the quarterfinals of MIAA North Div. 1 tournament.
League: Dual County League
Returning Players: “A lot of the seniors on this year’s team were on the team last year but didn’t play. Most of my players are senior players so they’re kind of getting their first taste ... I’ve got a good core of returning players, but I’m busy plugging holes in the one’s that graduated.”
Game to Watch: “It’s always hard to say. The Dual County League, the field hockey is so loaded from top to bottom that it’s, I think I always would say the best teams that we play, even though I suspect we might lose, they are often the best games that we play: Acton-Boxborough, Weston.”
Key to Success: “I think it’s replacing obviously the high-scorer from last year, but it’s also getting the offense, really the offense is what we need to work on and getting them comfortable around the goal and putting shots on goal. We have a pretty good defense, but it’s the offense I think that we need to work on this year.”
Coach’s Take: “All coaches want to win. But really my hope for every season is that the kids learn, they try their best and they have fun. It’s all I can expect from them. They’re a great team. This year’s team is a lovely team of girls, they all get along really well and it’s fun to come to practice every day.”
