 |
|
DCFH poses for a picture before our spring banquet just an hour after a
full day of games. We clean up nicely.
|
Greetings from DCFH!
Since our beloved, monster goalie Sarah Fisher is graduating this spring, I have been handed the task of writing the DCFH blog. Please bear with me as I try to follow in the footsteps of Fish, not an easy task in any regards. Here it goes…
The racer-back pinny and shin guard tan lines are well on their way which can only mean one thing…spring hockey season! While the fall is our main season, the spring is vital in developing each DCFH player. During the spring skills are retaught, refined and perfected such as basic hitting as well as receiving. Players get extra one-on-one practices with Ginny that allows for more individual attention and repetition in drills. During the spring you are able to work on skills that you want to work on, for instance, fine tuning your reverse chip so it consistently hits the “top cheddar” of the cage. As a team, this spring’s focus has been primarily on off-ball movement and the creation of overwhelming offensive pressure. As Ginny gets ready for her marathon so does the team! Cross training has been a big part of conditioning this spring which includes short intervals of sprinting, jumping jacks, jump rope, shuffles, high knees etc. The favorite conditioning exercise of the team would have to be the “burpee.” All I can say is it’s harder than it looks. While we watch Ginny gracefully demonstrate it with ease, after about two burpees I immediately regret that cheese quesadilla from the Union and pray that no one happens to be watching me.
Another crucial part of spring is weight training. Our lifting coach, Sarah, has us in the weight room every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour working on strength, mobility, injury prevention and flexibility. With five practices a week, two lifting sessions, an individual practice and the workload of Davidson, the spring season does involve a decent amount of time commitment. Do not let this fool you, spring is just as fun as it is challenging. To prove this point I have provided a list of the perks of spring season:
1) SCRIMMAGING. Yes, everyone’s favorite “drill.” Since the spring schedule does not have as many games, inter-squad scrimmaging becomes a favorite weekly pastime during practice.
2) Jams. Ginny sometimes plays music during practice. While you may not be able to hear it, our speaker system is a little on the softer side, you know its there. Who doesn’t love a little Pitbull and field hockey? (“It’s Mr. 305”)
3) Team bonding. The graduating seniors don’t participate in the spring season and while we miss them dearly the returning players must learn how to fill their roles on and off the field, both as players and leaders. This is probably the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the spring.
4) We can win any arm wrestling contest, we lift.
5) For this last point I was going to say something about having great spring weather, but this year that has not been quite the case…unless forty degrees and raining is your thing. But normally Mother Nature is kinder to us in North Carolina. I am also tanner by now normally…
Our hard work was displayed in both of our spring play days, first at Duke and then at our own Belk turf field. Duke provided us with fierce competition including teams such as University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, Appalachian State, Wake Forest and Duke. Our more recent play day at home included most of the teams in our conference such as Radford, Liberty and Appalachian State as well as Limestone. Both play days provided us with opportunities to display all of our hard work as well as return with lessons to learn from and grow upon as a team. As we head into the final weeks of spring season we face the Charlotte club team as well as the highly anticipated alumni game on April 20.
Since during the spring we do not have as many scheduled games, this leaves many of our weekends free and allows for more time to become involved around campus. Both Connor and Turner eating houses are represented in the field hockey team with our own Madeline currently serving as the treasurer of Connor House. Many girls on the team use this extra time to volunteer at Serenity House, Ada Jenkins and through many other organizations. Even when we are not playing field hockey on our field, we are on our field. What the team likes to call “turf naps” are a common pastime and growing in popularity not only within DCFH, but throughout campus. A turf nap is essentially catching some rays on the field and is a great way to try to even out those shin guard tan lines as well as procrastinate on homework on a lazy, Sunday afternoon. Spring for the sophomores carries the daunting task of declaring your major. Our sophomore majors include: Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Economics and I recently declared a history major. In addition to declaring my major I, along with many other fellow DCFHers, have joined an intermural softball team. This shouldn’t be too challenging right? DCFH just cannot stay away from competition.
I would also like to take this opportunity to reveal and promote the latest DCFH activity in the media. The recent YouTube sensation, ”The Harlem Shake,” will now be brought to you by yours truly, DCFH. (Click here to view) With guest appearances from Annie Evans, Sarah Fisher, Maddie Parrish and our trainer, Pam Stephens, this is soon to be the next video featured on Good Morning, America. We will keep you posted on our journey to fame (I’ll take autographs via my P.O. box).
Well it’s opening day for softball season here at Davidson College and I am off to my first game. Got my sunflower seeds and baseball cap in hand. It’s a great day to be a wildcat.
Rip ‘em up, tear ‘em up, give ‘em hell,
(Sara) Frenchie
