The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Field Hockey

The Perfect Game Changing & Memory Making Dip

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Byram Hills Varsity Field Hockey team in 2016 wearing pink socks for breast cancer awareness in October.

 

A simple five layer dip can have a quite powerful unifying effect, to many’s surprise. The Byram Hills High School Varsity Field Hockey team made this discovery all the way back in 2016, and it changed the game forever for them. 

I, myself, was a member of this team from 2016 to 2020: my freshman year of high school. Our team was composed of an unproportionally large group of freshmen talent, and by talent, I mean we were losing all of our games. The team had previously been a force to be reckoned with in the county, but after losing much of the team at graduation, they suffered with a lack of experienced players along with a new coach that 2016 fall. The group assembled was young, unorganized, and very timid – understandably. 

The captains had organized a team dinner to try and increase morale and create a more tight-knit, cohesive team. My mom, Palma Manners, volunteered to make dip for the dinner; little did she know the impact this dip would have on the coming season and the following years. The dip itself is simple (and definitely worth trying yourself): it is a beautifully constructed five layer stack of (from bottom to top) 1 (16 oz) can of refried beans, 1 (16 oz) container of sour cream seasoned with a ½ package of taco seasoning mix, about 10 ounces of guacamole, 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, and finally topped with 1 large tomato, chopped. 

“I only started making it your freshman year when you started doing team dinners,” she reflects. “I had offered to make it your very first team dinner, and it was such a hit that it was requested for every team dinner after. It became a bit of a tradition.”

A tradition indeed! It gave the team something to bond over, a sort of unifying ritual. Every week for the rest of the season, we would get together, over dip, and slowly form the close-knit team that we had wanted to be. We didn’t win many games still, we were still a young team with much to learn, but we started actually playing together, we found a rhythm. We even started writing “TOGETHER” on our legs in sharpie before every game as a reminder of this.

Every year for the next three years that I was playing and my mom was making dip, some players graduated and we gained new ones, but the tradition remained, and each year we would become a stronger team. The dip was such a simple tradition, but it became iconic for our group, and we still all reminisce about it today. I don’t remember any scores from that first year or the result of any of those games after, but I do remember the players, many of whom are still my best friends two years out of high school, and the memories we made over chips and dip every week.

 

Just Getting Started: Quakers Field Hockey Team A Section 1 Win Plus Hopes for the Future

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PHOTO BY Christina Schoonmaker

On November 2, the Horace Greeley field hockey team clinched its first Section 1 championship since 1984 with a 1-0 win over Mamaroneck.

It was a late goal by senior captain Isabelle Klein that sealed the win at Nyack High School last Fall. But building a championship team–one that lost two straight sectional final games before breaking through–took years, both for the program and the girls who finally ended the drought.

The upwards trek towards the top of Class A began 11 years ago, when Sukhvindar Singh Sandhu–recently named New York State Coach of the Year–joined the coaching staff. Sandhu, who played pro field hockey in India, found a middling program that posed little threat to Section 1 Class A juggernaut Mamaroneck. Sandhu saw that many of the girls were relatively new to the game, and realized he needed to get a stick in their hands at a younger age.

Building a Hockey Program from the Ground Up

“I talked to a couple of the parents, and we started a youth program,” he recalls. This helped grow the number of players coming out for the team, but it was not enough. “The next step was getting the travel team” established, Sandhu says. “You need the kids playing year-round.”

Sandhu became head coach of the varsity team in 2009 after a year coaching JV.

His first four years at the varsity level produced just one winning record and no playoff wins. In 2013 the Quakers began showing signs of life, making it to the Section 1 quarterfinals. The next year, Greeley reached the semi-finals, followed by three trips to the sectional championship game in four years.

The Quakers fell one game short of a Section 1 title in 2015, 2017 and 2018, losing to Mamaroneck each time. In November, the girls found themselves as the only team standing in the way of a Tigers threepeat.

“Seeing the seniors lose in that final game [the previous two years], I did not want to feel that as a senior,” midfielder Sofia Rutman says. “We just knew that couldn’t be our last game with the underclassmen.”

Klein’s goal, along with a dominant Quaker defense which did not allow a goal throughout the Section 1 playoffs, were enough to finally lift Greeley past the Tigers. Greeley won two more games to make it to the state championship. There, the season ended with a 2-1 loss to Maine-Endwell. “Most of the girls on our team who are juniors now were playing in that youth group with me,” says junior forward Lily Schoonmaker, who started playing the sport in fifth grade and has verbally committed to play for Colgate. “We’ve been going through the New Castle program through modified and now to varsity.”

Team Camaraderie & Coaches: Key Success Factors

Rutnam also pointed to the team chemistry as an important factor in their success. “I’ve been playing with these girls for six or seven years now, and it makes a huge difference just to know them and know their playing styles,” she explains. “We got along off the field really well, and that translated to passing and connections on the field. It let us score a lot of goals.”

Schoonmaker, who led the team with 20 goals, and Rutman, who was named the Quakers’ MVP, both cited Sandhu and assistant coach Brittany Paulus as key to the team’s success. “If you have a foot in the wrong place as you’re approaching somebody with the ball, he knows exactly where you should be and how to fix it,” Rutman says of Sandhu. “He knows every aspect of the game.”

Following their 18-1-4 season, the Quakers will be favored to vie for the championship again next season. The team is graduating nine seniors, including Rutman, who was All State, All League midfielder Talia Belowich and forward Klein, and All League Honorable Mention forward Kristen Graham and midfielder Paige Dalrymple. Defender Mia Warshaw, forwards Tess Fuqua and Sophie Dorst, and midfielder Mia Handler will also graduate.

But three All State players will be returning –Schoonmaker along with defender Caroline Flannery and midfielder Natalie Laskowski. All Section defender Stephanie Kasulka will be back, as will Emma Terjesen, Grace Arrese, Hannah Lane and goaltender Siena Jarrin, who were all named All League or All League Honorable Mention.

With a Section 1 title crossed off the checklist, the next goal is to win one more game and take home the state championship. “We are going to come back strong,” says Schoonmaker. “Now that we’ve been there, we have to do it.”

Field Hockey: Greeley’s Hidden GEM

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Greeley Field Hockey team wearing special pink jerseys in order to raise money for Breast Cancer research.
Greeley Field Hockey team wearing special pink jerseys in order to raise money for Breast Cancer research.

By Lauren Neff

My heart had never beat so fast. As I watched attentively to the orange ball on the end of my teammate Megan Graham’s stick, I squeezed the hands of my teammates so tightly that my knuckles turned white. We had fought Scarsdale to a 1-1 overtime draw in the Sectional Semifinals. It was time for the shootout–1 on 1, player vs. goalie. Tensions were high. Nikki Potter and Fiona Grant both managed to score on Scarsdale’s goalie. Our goalkeeper, Willa Kuhn, magically stopped three of four attempts.

It was Graham’s turn to shoot. Graham carried the ball towards the opposing goalie and with her speed, went around her and scored, clinching our win. Tears began to stream down my face. We jumped on Kuhn, then joined together in a group hug. We were going to the Sectional Finals, the first time Greeley field hockey had ever done so.

I could not have been a part of this wonderful program if I had not made the fateful decision to play field hockey in seventh grade. Like every other female athlete in town, I had played soccer since kindergarten. I had moved from the C team to the B team and eventually to the A team. One day, my friend told our group about how much fun the field hockey team is, that her sister had played and said it was a great way to fool around with friends after school. I called my dad asking if it would be alright for me to play. He responded, “as long as it doesn’t interfere with soccer practice.”

Little did we know at the time, it would cause me to quit soccer altogether. Most girls had never played a sport before, so I had a big advantage–field hockey is a lot like soccer, yet with a stick. I fell in love with the sport. Our team was terrible. We won once that year but it was FUN. As the girls mulled their high school options, I wanted to play field hockey, not soccer, and I had a much greater chance at doing so.

Unfortunately, in two years, Horace Greeley High School’s field hockey team may be extinct. This upcoming season, Greeley’s team is comprised of only juniors and four sophomores. There is a whole JV team to fill. Also, there are no cuts. Right now, besides swimming and boys tennis, field hockey is the most successful sport at Greeley. We were league champions in 2014 and made the Sectional Finals last season. With eight returning Varsity players this season plus good JV players, we expect a successful season and an even better one next year.

“When I became the Head Coach,” said Coach Sukhi Sukhwinder Singh, “ we finished 13th in the Section. The next year, we were 17th. It went to 11th, fifth, third and second…The first year, we won two awards at the Awards Dinner. I am happiest about this past year. We won 19.” Coach Sukhi was named Westchester/Putnam Coach of the Year in 2013.

Here’s the issue: Some 60 8th grade girls played for CYSC and club teams. There are three girls soccer teams at Greeley–Varsity, JV A & JV B. Each team is comprised of around 20 girls. Unfortunately, only three to four spots are open on Varsity this year. Around 15 sophomore girls will likely remain on the JV A and B teams.

So when freshmen girls try out for soccer this August, some will make a team and some will not. However, the real question is, how long will they remain on a team? Many girls will end up playing on JV for two years, then not making Varsity. History has shown that about eight to ten in a class will play on Varsity.

It is so difficult to make the Varsity soccer team here that great athletes will end up being cut from the program because of a lack of space. So what can these girls do? The answer is simple: pick up a stick. One of our Varsity players, Cat Brennan, left soccer for field hockey in ninth grade and started many games as a sophomore.

Field hockey allows every girl who plays it to succeed in some way and grow as an athlete and as a person. Whether that is scoring a goal, giving an assist, winning an award or just being there to support the team and have fun, everyone takes something away from this experience. I would have maybe lasted two years on JV soccer teams if I were lucky. In field hockey, I was called up to Varsity as a freshman. This past year, I started each game, scored 11 goals and received several postseason awards. If I can do it, so can anyone. Please join us.

Lauren Neff is a rising junior at Horace Greeley High School. She enjoys field hockey, basketball, and singing in an A Capella group.