Field hockey club looks to expand

Like many club sports, the IU Field Hockey Club is looking to get bigger.\nThe club, which is a member of the Tri-State Field Hockey League, competes against schools and clubs in the Midwest, but has trouble putting together a full team.\n“We struggle to get people to come out,” said assistant coach Jen Myers. “A lot of people don’t know what it is or what we’re doing.”\nTony Koschmann, club member and graduate student, said the personnel issues surrounding the club are mainly due to scheduling conflicts and a lack of facilities.\n“There’s only so much space here at IU,” he said. “There are a lot of clubs that want to make use of the facilities.”\n“It’s a great school, and we’re all students and everyone’s got their eyes on doing well in school,” he added. “It’s just not easy for students to be able to come to every event and every practice that we’ve got going on, so that’s a challenge.”\nThe team needs to field 11 players for a full game, and members said they sometimes are not able to do that.\nThe club’s president, sophomore Katie Gilbride, said many of the personnel problems have to do with field hockey not being a common sport in this area.\n“In Indiana, field hockey isn’t popular at all,” she said. “Most of our team is from out of state. We want the club to be more well-known.”\nThe club competed in an indoor tournament in Cincinnati in February. Though members said the club did not do well, they said it was a good experience.\n“It was a really laid back and fun tournament,” Gilbride said.\nKatie Greenham, the club’s head coach, said she agreed the club benefited from the \ncompetition.\n“It’s one of the best tournaments for us all season, because it’s a very competitive tournament,” she said. “We did it last year as well. We didn’t do very well, but it’s a lot of fun for everyone playing.”\nThe club will compete in another tournament in St. Louis to finish off the year. The University of Missouri, which the IU field hockey club has never competed against, will participate in the tourney.\n“It’s always good to have more teams join the league,” Greenham said. “It means more games for us, which is always a benefit.”\nClub members said they are looking for more players and will welcome anyone of any skill level.\n“We’re always open to having new people come in,” Greenham said. “We’d like to encourage people to come whenever they can. The great thing about field hockey is that it’s very dynamic. From a coaching standpoint, people who have never held a stick before are able to pick it up very quickly.”\nKoschmann said the club’s expansion would make it better.\n“It’d be nice to have more players involved, because it’s a fun sport,” he said. “We want to be one of the top club sports on campus.”