Field hockey: Another Building Year

It looks like the Radcliffe field hockey team is going to have another "building year," the bane of both coaches and cliche haters.

Coach Debi Field, who will be coaching the stickwomen for the second time this year, lead last year's squad to a 3-2-5 record. This year nine lettermen from last year's team came to pre-season camp to form the core of the 15-person roster.

"Last year our system was a little too defensive," Field said a few days before camp opened. "It's going to take three or four years before we can consider ourselves a strong power. We need scoring punch," she added.

Field said she hopes to get some of that punch from the largest contingent of field hockey playing freshmen ever to attend Radcliffe. Field expects 18 freshmen, many of whom look "very good on paper," to provide some of the offense the stickpeople lack.

But Field won't see any of these incoming freshmen play until freshman week, more than a week after the pre-season practices began and a few days before the team's first game, an exhibition match against Boston University September 24.

But the rest of the team will be in a better position than they were last year. Now, they'll know their coach as well as the type of field hockey she likes to play. "We'll be improving on what we did last year," Field said.

The double-session practices began September 13 with Field drilling her players on basic stickwork. But Field said she won't decide on the team's strategy until the fresh-women start working out with the team September 21.

The team came back in "mediocre shape," Field said. "Some were in good shape and some weren't," Field said. She added that the players will be doing stadiums and weight training to develop their upper body and legs.

Nineteen stickwomen returned for the first day of practice, including nine letterpeople from last year: captain Anne Dupuis, Abby Homans, Mary Howard, Maureen Mason, Marjorie Williams, Lucy Wood, Gwill York, Anna Jones and Karen Linsley.