When sophomores Emily Caindec and Kayla Wood started promoting a meeting for a potential girls’ field hockey team, they weren’t expecting the turnout they ended up with.
70 interested students crammed into a tiny classroom on March 3 to learn more about the startup of the team. Caindec and Wood have the support of athletic director Jessica Peisch and are currently waiting for district approval.
Wood and Caindec have enlisted the help of Jen Riedy, the former Marin Catholic girls’ varsity field hockey coach, who is planning on being the head coach of the team. However, the team will not officially start their season until next years’ fall.
When lacrosse was added as a school sport, the district was on a tight budget and couldn’t financially support the team for its first three years. The same thing will most likely be true for the field hockey team. The girls will have to do a significant amount of fundraising in order to pay for equipment and transportation throughout the season.
Despite their interest in starting the team, Wood and Caindec have never played field hockey competitively. Caindec only became interested in starting the team after she stopped playing volleyball.
“I had shoulder surgery, so I realized I wouldn’t be able to play volleyball again,” Caindec said.
Caindec thought field hockey would be a fun sport to start playing after hearing a lot about it from friends in other parts of the country outside of California where the sport is more popular.
Since field hockey is not an MCAL sport, the team would play against the few other schools in the county that also have a team such as Marin Catholic. They wouldn’t officially be a part of any league.