The St. Joe’s Club Field Hockey Team knows that good things come to those who wait.
After not playing for a year and a half, the team qualified for the National Field Hockey League (NFHL) Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia. According to co-captain Rachel Hornig ’23, the wait for a return to the national championships started back in March of 2020.
“It was something I’ve really looked forward to ever since we left in the spring of my freshman year,” Hornig said. “With it being our first season back, being able to go all the way to Nationals was really exciting for us.”
It wasn’t too difficult to pick up where the team left off. Hornig said the connections that the team made off the field paid dividends for their on-field results.
“A lot of us got really close during the season,” Hornig said. “Being able to bring those close connections allowed us to work well and communicate when we were playing.”
According to co-captain Chelsea Covaleskie ’22, communicating well has been important for the team, as a lot of the players on the team had some cobwebs to shake off during the season.
“It’s definitely been an adjustment coming back after having a whole year off [with] basically no practice,” Covaleskie said. “We’ve just been readjusting and honestly figuring out how to play again.”
Covaleskie said it was important to make sure that the environment at practice was fun and light, given that they do not have a coach.
“Considering that we are a captain run team, we try to make it a social thing as well as a competitive thing,” Covaleskie said. “I think that contributes to our success.”
According to co-captain Mikayla Carson ’22, this season was all three of the captains’ first time in a leadership role.
“Rachel, Chelsea and I were all new to this with no prior help,” Carson said. “Chelsea and Rachel are both so great and organized, and I think we did the best that we could.”
Carson said the team improved throughout the season, with results being shown in their second game against the University of Pennsylvania.
“We lost 9-0 the first time we played them and then we ended up almost tying them during our nationals game against them,” Carson said. “I think we really made a lot of progress and everyone was playing really well by the end of the season.”
According to Covaleskie, St. Joe’s was the smallest school at the NFHL Championships, and even though they did not come home with a win, they had a solid showing at the tournament.
“There were a lot larger schools, but we played very well against the competition that we played,” Covaleskie said. “It was a success in my book.”
Hornig said the future is bright for the team due to the large number of first-years and sophomores who were contributing members of the team this season.
“I definitely have high expectations especially after the opportunity that we were given for this season,” Hornig said. “I think we are going to have a good strong team, and we will be just as competitive if not more competitive going forward.”
