By the time you reach high school-level athletics, it’s easy to feel like every game, practice, and moment is all business. Each time you step onto the field or court, the goal is to win. LM’s athletics has been very successful recently. Hallway chatter about the soccer teams’ recent victories or girls’ tennis dominance isn’t hard to stumble upon. However, one team varies from the rest. With an untraditional culture, LM Field Hockey is a closely-knit family, one that doesn’t let win-loss records divide them.
This community begins to form on the first day of preseason. Fall athletes started practice on August 11 this year, arriving bright and early at 8 a.m. Immediately, the team bonding commenced. While some sports immediately run tryouts, LMFH does not cut anyone from its roster. This is a largely disputed concept, as some argue it detracts from the talent on the team. Instead, the coaches see the value in a diverse group with varying experience levels. For athletes like Jolin Qiu ’28, who didn’t pick up the sport until preseason freshman year, this inclusion makes all the difference. Qiu describes how “the team at LM helped me develop more as a player and person both inside and outside of practice. Everybody was so welcoming and genuine despite me being new to the sport, and everyone chipped in to help me develop my skills.” Now, these athletes who would have otherwise not been given a chance have the opportunity to become great players. The rest of the team values the large roster, as it brings more people into the community that rapidly become trusted friends and teammates. An additional bonding factor is that field hockey doesn’t divide into JV and varsity during practices. This means teams are very much connected, participating in the same drills and receiving feedback from all the coaches.
For three weeks, LMFH develops their skills. Field hockey players have two practices a day: morning and evening. During this time, they run, do drills, and bond. Throughout my two years on the team, it’s become evident that there’s a special connection formed from long hours of running side by side, step for step with someone. Something truly magical is being concocted with every connected pass, landed joke, and shared smile. It’s an indescribable feeling, like a safety net cast underneath your feet, interwoven strands of teammates that protect each other from on-the-field threats and in-school insecurities.
No one on the field hockey team feels lonely on the first day of school. Each girl shows up in tie-dye shirts bearing LMFH in Sharpie and the uniform skirt. Passing someone wearing a matching outfit in the hallway, often accompanied by a smile, instantly eases first-day anxiety. Field hockey is known for its creative spirit days, which bring excitement to game days with themed outfits. Some are straightforward, like wearing field hockey merchandise or dressing up for a formal day. Others, like trouncing around the hallways in a toga before the Conestoga matchup, seem complex and perhaps awkward for players from an outside perspective. Mari Ronquillo ’28, who has already participated in many of the team’s spirit days, explains that “spirit days are super special and bring us all together. It’s fun to see everyone in the hallways dressing up, and when everyone does it, it’s not awkward at all.”
As the season continues forward, and August fades into fall, this strong culture does not diminish. Despite athletes balancing practices and games on top of schoolwork, stress is never carried over into practice. If anything, the carefree routine of stretches and warm-up pass shuttles erases stress. Chatter and rushed stories recounting the events of the day fill the field. Gamedays vary only in the determination of every player to play their absolute best and help the team towards success.
In the end, the focus is never on wins, losses, or minutes played. The goal is to play as a team, work as a team, but never dwell as a team. Move forward, and strive to do better each time so that sometimes, when the clock hits zero, the team can rush for their goalie in celebration. Athletics are indeed a business, one designed to cultivate success and push out the best into higher competition. The coaches of LM’s field hockey teams believe in a different version of success: one where each player develops into a better student, athlete, and person.
