Skirts. Cleats. Goggles. These are three things commonly found in girls field hockey which is now a new sport at East Meck.
This year East offered the option of field hockey to the female students for the fall season. It has given the girls an opportunity of branching out and exploring non-traditional sports that aren’t commonly found in most CMS schools.
Students Molly Click, Sarah Click, Audrey Roberts and Whitney Stanley joined the new community club, which includes other schools in the area. The team coaches were Natalie Lang, Krista Meyers and Alisha Roberts.
Stanley joined with no experience of field hockey. “I liked it a lot. It was a new sport for me,” Stanley said. “I really enjoyed my teammates and meeting new people.”
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association hasn’t qualified field hockey as a sport to play. So East paired up with the organization Charlotte Ambush to help students to learn the game of field hockey.
Athletic Director Jason Fowler and principal Rick Parker met with the organization back in summertime and approved letting students participate in this new club.
Anyone interested in joining was allowed to. No previous knowledge or skill was needed; the only thing required was your willingness to learn.
“Playing for the team really helped me transition into high school”, freshmen Sarah Click said.
“I made many friends and the team felt like a family. I learned so many skills that go way beyond field hockey like leadership and how to be a team player.”
Practices were mostly held at the Charlotte Christian fields from 4-5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and with games at different times during this week
The decision to have a team at East has created new opportunities for student athletes to explore a different meaning to playing sports.
“I’ve been playing field hockey for 6 years now and it has helped me grow into the person I am today,” junior Molly Click said.
“Being on a community team was a pretty different experience than I was used to but, it was so much fun since I was able to build a connection with players that I’d never get the chance to play with normally and strengthen my connection with players that I’ve played with since middle school but go to different high schools from them.”
