Q: What is your main goal heading into the playoffs for the field hockey team?
A: Our main goal heading into playoffs is to play our best hockey of the season. We want our performance to show our hard work and our growth throughout the season. If we focus on playing together as a team, working hard and executing what we’ve been working on in practice, then we will be proud of the outcome.
Q: How have you adjusted the team’s training and mental preparation this week to transition from regular season play to the higher stakes and intensity of the playoffs?
A: This week, we’ve been working on our vision, spreading out and connecting quick passes or taking quick shots instead of holding onto the ball too long. The mental preparation is just about building confidence and trust in each other. The further teams get in the playoffs, the more skilled everyone is. That’s when it comes down to the mental game, taking advantage of our opportunities, staying calm under pressure and being mentally sharp even as we may get physically tired.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about the playoffs?
A: I love the energy that playoffs bring to the field hockey community. I love seeing families, younger players, opposing teams and everyone else come together to support our sport. We get the best crowds of the season and the toughest games. This is what we work for, and we have to learn to embrace the pressure and turn that into energy. Also, field hockey is the third most popular sport in the entire world, but people don’t always realize it here in the Midwest. I love when people see a high level game for the first time and realize that the sport is actually highly technical and produces top level athletes in the area.
Q: What are you most proud of about the team this season?
A: I am most proud of the team’s resiliency. We are a smaller team this year, and we’ve experienced several illnesses and injuries that could have derailed us. Instead, different people are stepping up, embracing new positions and roles on the team, and everyone is figuring out a way to work the best we can with what we have. That’s what great teams do. They don’t make excuses; they just figure out a way to make it happen.
Q: What has been your outlook on this season and what are you hoping to get out of it by the end of the season?
A: This season, we have an incredibly talented team. We have speed, elite skill, top-level defense and leadership. When everyone plays to their strengths, then we can have the best shot at the outcomes that we want. By the end of the season, whatever round of the playoffs that is, I hope that we can walk off the field feeling proud of our efforts and having given everything we can.
