Reflections on the Waynflete-McAuley Co-Op Field Hockey Team

Our last field hockey game at NYA wasn’t successful score-wise – a 5-1 loss – but the score is not what mattered to me. Success isn’t always determined by a team’s win-loss record at the end of a season. It can be determined by the team’s effort and increasing ability to meet the challenges it faces. This year was a pioneering year for the Waynflete-Catherine McAuley field hockey co-op team. As the goalie of the Varsity team, I would say it was a success.

At the end of last year, with a small number of players scheduled to return, the Waynflete field hockey team had a meeting and we were given three options: to compete at only the Junior Varsity level, to make a co-op team with Catherine McAuley. or to not have a team at all. Of course, we weren’t going to not play at all, so the decision was between playing only Junior Varsity or making a co-op team. Many people, including me, didn’t want to limit ourselves to only playing at the JV level, so as a team we decided the best option was a co-op team with McAuley.

Going into pre-season, I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect. I knew things were going to be very different because, in addition to playing with 12 brand new teammates, we had a new head coach, Stacy Sevelowitz.  But after only two weeks of pre-season, the team was already becoming cohesive as we bonded by working hard during practices. We even scheduled team bonding activities outside of practice.  We threw ourselves a pool party and attended McAuley Homecoming as a team.

The future is bright.  Besides being well bonded, our team is young, consisting of mostly freshmen and only one senior, so we have lots of room to improve. Even though our season wasn’t the best in terms of our record, it was a successful year considering the challenges we faced and me. Not all seasons are winning ones, and if they aren’t, they still can be determined successful by team effort and cohesiveness.