ﬁlm/ES

P/‘Sterner stuff’ the difference in field hockey

When most of the students were on
their way home, or on their way to a
longrawaited vacation or a boring
time an an empty campus, the
women's field hockey team was en

analysis—

route to Chicago to spend the lll‘St
weekend of break at the Lake Forest
College Invitational Fleld Hockey
Tournament.

To some, field hockey is a time to
streak, lor others it is a time to spec-
tate with Heilman’s Speual nxport, or
just another time to get the OB
(obnoxious)-squad together. As the
women’s field hockey coach, I’ve ace
cepted the fact that Grinnell must do
these things or it just wouldn't be
Grinnell. There must be an 0B»squad;
and where else but Grinnell would one
find streakers in 35 degree weather at
a lield hockey game? In other words, i
have found it to be a very difficult
task, as a new coach at Grinnell Cole

lege, to field a team in a winning
situation.

Nevertheless, the group of 17
athletes proceeded to Chicago to play
in a tournament with a 4 wins-7 losses
record. We did not have the luxury of
a Ramada Inn; but we found it much
more comfortable in an apartment
lent to us by another athlete’s parents,

On the morning of our first game, as
we loaded the van, many things
started rolling through my head, one
of which was: “How am 1 going to tell
my team to beat the University of
Chicago?”

As game time drew near, I finally
came up with a brainstorm. l’ll just
tell them that we‘ve never played on a
muddy field before and so we should
wm. We beat U. of Chicago 3-0 on a
muddy field; I was glad that my pep
talk worked.

Later, we had to play a team on a
nice, smooth, dry field. Now what do I
tell them? I'll just say, “I know you
can beat this team even though we
have to play on a nice, dry field. We

proceeded to beat the University at
Wisconsin, Green Bay, 2 WOW! My
pregame talk worked again. We hap-
plly left the field looking forward to an
easy win the following day, no matter
what kind of field we had to play on,

At 3:15 the next morning, we lost to
Rockford College 472. Now what do I
tell my team? I told them to go take a
shower and that we would eat at the
Amanas on the way home. But wait,
after checking the standings I
discovered that Grinnell was in a
three way tie in our pool, Now we
have to get dressed again and have a
play-off game with Rockiord College.
Well, I sure am glad that the team
had taken a shower because I was
sure that was why we won

But then we had another playvoff to
deal with; should I tell my team to go
take a shower? I decided against it
and told them instead that they had to
win because we could win a second
place trophy. Our team agreed to win,
and did exactly that.

Well, there we were in Chicago with

Scar/e1 & Block. .-

 

