By: Eliana Hernandez
The Wayland Youth Field Hockey team was formed by Danielle Meade in 2021 because she wanted to spread the joy she felt playing field hockey when she was younger to the younger generation, as well as offering more sports for girls, as one of the only girl sports was soccer, and any sport aside from that wasn’t open until about 7th grade.. She started the team along with Mia Callahan, Lauren Grant, and the Wayland Rec. department; Katie Haskins joined to help soon after.
As that first year went on, more people joined. In mid 2022, they began playing as a team against other teams from nearby towns such as Lexington, Hopkinton, Ashland, and Lincoln Sudbury. In the Autumn 2024 season, so many people joined the field hockey team that they needed to split the teams up. There are now currently two Wayland (youth) Field hockey teams: the Orange team and the White team. The colors were chosen from some of the colors of their home town- Wayland
There are many positions to play in field hockey:
Offense (also known as forward), which is the area in the front, trying to score; MidField, which is all around the field, scoring and blocking goals on their net; Defense (also known as back), trying to prevent the opposing team from scoring on them, occasionally bringing the ball up for someone to score; Sweeper, which is an extension from defense usually staying farther back closer to the goal, occasionally helping other teammates know where to be; and Goalie, stopping the opposing team from scoring a goal on them. When playing in games and scrimmages in practice, there are usually four players on offense (aka forward), three players on midfield, two players on defense (a.k..a. back), and one as sweeper, plus one player in the goal as the goalie. There are generally 10 people on the field plus the goalie; however, the amount of people on the field can occasionally be shifted slightly for a specific game, but this rarely happens and usually only done when both coaches have talked over whether or not they will.
The season for the Wayland (Youth) Field Hockey team’s Autumn season is usually from the end of August to the middle of October. The next season for the team is this Saturday. This season will take place from Saturday, May 3rd to Saturday, June 14th. Although the sign ups are done, you can still see everyone play on those dates every Saturday, from May 3rd to June 14th in Wellesley, MA. If you are interested in any sport, whether it is field hockey or any other kind, try to look into joining a nearby team of that sport!
Help with writing and gathering information came from Eleanor Barnowski and Avery Chen.