Despite a large turnout to a meeting about starting a girls’ field hockey team last March, the team was unable to begin this fall due to the high cost of starting a new sport, as well as a lack of sufficient time to organize practice schedules, games, and other aspects that must be sorted out in advance.
In early March of last year, juniors Emily Caindec and Kayla Wood promoted the creation of a girl’s field hockey team to an eager crowd. However, since then, there has been no word regarding the formation of the team, despite a turnout of almost 70 girls to the information meeting.
According to Caindec, the school board approved the addition of the sport for the fall season of 2015. Jen Riedy, the current field hockey coach at Marin Catholic, is planning to lead the team.
“They said that they would fund most of it,” Caindec said. “We might have to do some funding to pay for refs, field space, some of the equipment, because as a public school we have to provide all the equipment —all the sticks, all the balls and everything.”
According to Caindec, next year’s team will not be playing in an official league, and will instead compete with schools that have a recognized team, such as St. Ignatius, Marin Catholic, and University High School, as well as other schools in the city and potentially the East Bay.
“The goal was to make it so that Redwood had another girls’ sport in the fall,” Caindec said. “I had shoulder surgery last year after a volleyball injury, so I knew I couldn’t play overhand sports anymore. I was looking for a fun team sport that girls could do in the fall.”