Life As a Kent State Field Hockey Player
9/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
There's a lot more to being a college athlete than just playing in the games. Together, Kent State field hockey teammates Charlotte Muller and MaryKate Hanosek share some of their experiences of being a college athlete in a multi-part journal entry.
Part I- Heading to Missouri
Wednesday, Sept. 26
1pm:
We had our first conference games last weekend, and due to injuries we come to treatment in the stadium training room anywhere between 1 and 1:30. Teammates that have class up until 2pm have to come to the training room in the M.A.C. Center between 7-11am. Practice starts at 2:30pm but most of the team arrives at the stadium after their classes have ended around 2pm, some people will bring lunch or eat it right before. There is usually time before practice where we listen to music, talk, and goof around a little bit before practice.
2:30pm:
This week we had lifting with Coach Jacobi Tuesday and Wedneasday. Everyone has lifting times based on their class schedule. Lifting times range from 7am to 1:15pm. Lifting is always before practice and takes 30-45min. Coach Jacobi's main focus is to strengthen our core muscles used for field hockey. He does this with exercises such as: squats, hang cleans, and core abs and arm strength. After a day off he will also condition us right before practice.
Today Coach Schanne, due to weather conditions, ran a shorter practice then normal. Instead of a three hour practice we only practiced for an hour and 45 minutes. We warm up for about 20 minutes before we begin drills, and sometimes we play a game of soccer or rugby to make things competitive and fun. We have a tradition of wearing grandma grays (upperclassmen) versus baby blues (freshman).
After we stretch we practice basic skills for about ten minutes. This includes hitting, passing, and defensive skills. While the goalies dress and warm up we continue with playing a small possession game. When the goalies are warmed up we do drills based on our previous games and what we need to work on. We usually end practice with a shooting game on goal. These shooting games usually produce a lot of laughs and heckling. After shooting we practice corners. Corners are very important to the game of field hockey and we along with the coaches try to come up with the most effective plays against the opponents we face that weekend. We practice in almost all weather conditions, but since lightning was seen we were forced to end 10 minutes early.
4pm:
After practice we shower before we go to the training room to get ice and treatment. The locker room atmosphere after practices is usually light and fun. We sing and dance along to music and enjoy each others' company.
Thursday, Sept. 27
1pm:
This weekend we play on a different type of turf and because of this we scheduled practice earlier in order to use the football field since it is similar to Missouri State's field. At 1pm most of the team was ready and out on the field. We began practice with hitting and once the corner unit was on the field we immediately began corners. Unfortunately, again due to weather we were forced inside. The people that needed treatment who were unable to do their rehab before practice did there treatment at this time.
2pm:
We were back on the field until 2:30 doing corners and a shooting drill. The field is very different than what we are used to. It is a different turf surface and due to this, the ball moves more slowly and pops up more than it would on our turf. When we were done with corners and our time was up we went inside and watched film for 30 minutes. We watch film in order to see what we need to fix and analyze our playing. It's a useful tool and provides feedback from our games.
3:30pm:
Before our games our equipment manager puts our travel bags in the locker room. Because of our early departure time from the stadium tomorrow some of the girls took their bags with them to pack the rest of what they will need for the weekend.
Friday, Sept. 28
3:45am:
Most people woke up at this time in order to pick up people from the dorms and pick up snacks for the trip. At 4:30 all of our bags needed to be put in the bus and we were ready to go to Cleveland Airport. We flew out of Cleveland at 7:20am and arrived in St. Louis at 7:50am central time. The team was exhausted from being up so early in the morning and most people slept for the three hours it took to get from St. Louis to Missouri State (Springfield).
12pm:
We ate lunch at a local deli and continued to our hotel in Springfield. We dropped off our bags and put our practice gear on and went straight to the field to have a walk through.
1:30pm:
Our walk through consisted of basic skills, hitting and receiving upright since the ball bounces more on this kind of field. After basic skills we played a possession game and began shooting. After the shooting drill we worked on our press and working the ball out of the backfield. To end practice we worked on offensive and defensive corners.
3:30pm:
We arrive back at the hotel and have free time until 6:25pm when we left for dinner at the Olive Garden. During our free time before this we take showers, nap, or do any homework we have for the weekend. The amount of free time we had today is rare on trips.
7pm:
We ate at the Olive Garden. We enjoyed a good pre game meal. Most people order pasta and a protein before a game day. We also have a superstition that we must eat dessert before a game because it means good luck.
8:40pm:
We had a team meeting tonight in the coach's room. We thought it was going to be a tactical meeting but instead the coaches put together a slide show of baby pictures of our freshman class. This has become a tradition with our new coaching staff and it is one we enjoy very much.
10pm:
Curfew and lights out.
