Today: Mar 28, 2024

Women in Sports: SCSU Field Hockey 

Hailey Roy Contributor

The Southern field hockey team is hungry to improve its 3-14 record from their 2021 season. 

“We want to improve on our record and certainly how we compete goal scoring wise;, how we defend,” the head coach of 26 years, Kelley Frassinelli, said.  

During Frassinelli’s time with the field hockey team, she coached 13 All-Americans, 26 All-Northeast 10 Conference picks and other award-winning field hockey players. 

Frassinelli, a southern alum, is getting her team ready for the season by watching game films and getting them mentally and physically prepared. 

“It’s coming here and being prepared mentally before you can be prepared physically,” Frassinelli said. “We have weekly meetings talking through stuff that’s troubling, bothersome, or stressing them out. We try to take care of that whole person first and foremost and then we try to prepare them physically to be on the field.” 

This season, the fall women’s sports team is set to play against Mercy College, Assumption University, Bentley University, Pace University and other colleges. Their game formation this fall goes back and forth between 2-5-3 and 3-4-3.  

The Owls’ first game was located in Kutztown, PA. at Mansfield University. The game ended with a score of 0-2. 

Daily practices at Jess Dow Field communication 

“Listening to music and dancing in the locker room to get each other hype is probably one of our pre-game rituals,” team captain and international business major Grace Conselyea, a senior, said. 

Another locker room normalcy is questions of the day written on the whiteboard for the team to answer. These questions have included “what’s your guilty pleasure?” and “do you consider a hotdog a sandwich?”. 

“It’s just a way to get to know people more through fun questions,” communications disorder major Sarah Gallagher, a freshman, said. “Sometimes there are yes or no or sometimes they’re open-ended.” 

Team bonding is critical for the team according to Coach Frassinelli. 

“For them to realize they walk in different shoes. You don’t know somebody else’s day until you ask them about it or you talk about it or get on that level where you can bond with someone,” Frassinelli said. “For them [the field hockey team], it’s getting to know each other whether it’s small silly games or talking beforehand.” 

The field hockey team does have fun as a team but not without hard work. Their practices involve a lot of cardio and focus.  

During practice, the team is required to wear a university pinny. This helps the players in multiple ways. One reason is to be able to switch quickly into offense or defense. The white side of the pinny indicates offense. Once they turn it inside out the pinny changes to the university’s color: dark blue, which represents defense. The pinnies also reveal their jersey numbers.  

The practice pinnies are not the only pieces matching during their daily practice. They also have matching grey university shorts and “Powerade” water bottles. 

This season, Frassinelli hopes her team recognizes their strengths.  

“This team certainly has the ability and has the skill; once they start recognizing that more and more which I think they already have,” Frassinelli said. “They’re a super core group of individuals who have great talent once they put it together we’ll do great things.”  

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