Senior Jenny Do defending the ball from an opponent. Photo by Jesaias Benitez.
By Sara Zakaria and Angelina Prum
Starting off a new season with many freshmen players, Malden High’s Field Hockey team is excited to create a family-like bond with all the new athletes. Based on what she saw last year, junior and Captain, Queenie Dang stated that “[she is] proud of what the team brought to each and every single game; they pushed their best and hardest.”. Dang also stated that last season was “exciting, since [they] got to play with a whole bunch of new people”. The Field Hockey team brought forth their best effort in every game, and will continue to do so this season.
For this upcoming season, their main goal is to improve the communication between the team when they are on the field. Their usual technique during games is calling each other by name. The captains want to establish “a baseline” for communication, so it can be much easier to interact with other members on the team during a game. Another goal that ties into communication is learning the names for the new members on the team. There are a lot of new players this year, so it’s important to get to know one another and learn names.
The relationship between the team members is an important subject to them. Everyone tries to make sure that the team feels comfortable enough to try harder next game. The Field Hockey team considers themselves to be “one big, happy family”. They focus on bonding and even host pasta parties for all the players throughout the season. Dang stated that “because this is a team sport we try to keep everyone as close as we can”. The team simply communicates better when they have a tighter bond.
The team Captains are strong, motivating individuals, but being captain is not always easy. They take on added responsibility, such as managing team apparel. The captains also strive to motivate new players with their spirit, and assess performances each game. However, being captain is “an honor” to all three of the captains which apart from Dang, include senior Sydney Addorisio and Jenny Huynh. Although they hope their team can excel in the sport, it is not necessarily about the statistics, “it is about how you feel on the team”, said Addorisio. The Field Hockey captains try being supportive and bringing a positive energy to the team. Their advice to beginning players is to “just try the sport and never give up”. All senior captains wish to pursue their sport in college, if possible and are willing to come back to Malden High School to help train the other girls.
Correction: An earlier version of this article was published stating senior Jenny Do is a captain.
