US Field Hockey News

USA Field Hockey’s Summer League Opens in Virginia Beach

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 10) –USA Field Hockey’s elite-level Summer League kicks off its seventh season Saturday as the eight-team league begins its double round-robin tournament, June 12 and 13 at the USA Field Hockey National Training Center in Virginia Beach.

Games begin at 8:00 A.M. Saturday and continue throughout the day. The weekend’s competition continues at 8 A.M. Sunday and concludes with the first round’s final games at 4:30 P.M. The league resumes play in Virginia Beach on June 26-27 and concludes with the semifinals and final, July 3-4 in Virginia Beach. There is no charge for admission to the games.

Established in 1998 to provide high-level domestic competition for the country’s top players, the league features elite college-age and older players, as well as a team of USA junior national team players and the USA national squad. Members of the USA squad’s residency program will be making their first appearance in the league as a team. In earlier years, USA team members were assigned to the league’s various teams.

“The reason we want to participate in the Summer League is we want to create a high competitive environment,” says Nick Conway, the USA team’s acting coach. “It is going to be a low pressure situation where the players can feel free to express themselves and really enjoy hockey. Hopefully, they can play some good hockey and get used to playing together.”

The USA recently resumed its residency program after a break following a second place finish at the Pan American Cup in Bridgetown, Barbados in April. The USA team’s entry in the Summer League will include a combination of current players, some junior team players and athletes who will potentially compete for selection to the USA team during its next open trial.

The national squad will  join five-time defending champion Southern Charm, 2004 runner-up Tidewater Tempest, Midwest Cyclones, Metro Rush, New England Eclipse, Philadelphia Fury and a combined USA U19/U21 team in the annual elite level tournament. The USA team is not eligible for the league title.

The teams are headed by coaches from some of USA Field Hockey's highest levels of programming including Karen Shelton and Neil MacMillan  (Southern Charm), Kristen Holmes-Winn (Metro Rush),  Lauren Fuchs (Philadelphia Fury), Andrew Griffiths (Tidewater Tempest), Scott Smith (New England Eclipse), Daan Poldars (Midwest Cyclones) and Tracey Fuchs (USA Junior Team).

Restructured to promote regionalized training and provide additional competition opportunities for college-aged athletes, the 2004 Summer League features a renewed dedication to developing players for possible advancement to the national team residency program with rosters made up entirely of players in the target group. Teams may include two free agents and one non-U.S. citizen.

            The defending champion Charm will try to add to its string of five straight championships with a roster that includes players from the Univ. of North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest. Top mid-Atlantic region players from the Univ. of Maryland, Univ. of Richmond and Old Dominion also stock the roster for the Tidewater Tempest while the Metro Rush features a strong lineup of athletes from northeast colleges including Princeton, Univ. of Delaware, U. Penn and Rutgers.

            The Philadelphia Fury roster includes athletes from Temple, the Univ. of Virginia, Penn and Syracuse, while New England’s Eclipse is represented by athletes from New Hampshire, Harvard, Northeastern, Brown, Boston U., Quinnipiac and other regional schools.

            In the Midwest, athletes from Big Ten schools Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Ohio State and others will try to help the Cyclones improve on last year’s third place finish.

www.usfieldhockey.com