Vikings' first-half action in Saturday's playoff game.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Reporter's question: Do you plan to start a youth league for field hockey?
Lisa Griffiths, coach at La Jolla High before her team's CIF opener Sat., Nov. 14: "I just did. Two weeks ago." The team is called the Spitfire. Griffiths is going to play on a team called the "Jolie Pitts", as in Angelina and Brad. Quite a sense of humor.
The topic came up because La Jolla's field hockey team has consistently played well over the years against the middle teams of CIF. But against the top tier, like Serra and Scripps Ranch, the Vikings always fall short--because their girls haven't started mastering the skills of field hockey until they enter the LJHS program in the ninth grade.
Now, girls as young as four years old--Griffiths says, "If you have someone four years old, bring them in"--can begin practicing the sport to begin to develop the skills that take them beyond "good athletes" to "good field hockey players".
Bea Mittermiller, former LJHS coach and mother of Claire Mittermiller, an all-league player for the Vikings in 2007-08 (Class of 2009), dropped by Saturday's first-round playoff game at Muirlands Middle School against an outclassed University City team to say that she and Paula Conway started an after-school program at Muirlands last year.
So, Serra and Scripps Ranch beware. If these new programs endure, those top-tier schools won't be able to dominate poor La Jolla as they have in the past. Of course, it will take time. But it should provide girls who are interested an opportunity for coaching by Griffiths and a chance to gain the stick skills that don't develop in four years of playing only for one's high school.
When Scripps Ranch visited Muirlands to face La Jolla during the regular season this fall, it was evident of the wide gap in hockey skills between the two programs. Falcon players were able to dribble the ball through multiple defenders and either score or pass off to teammates without losing the ball.
On the other side of the ball, LJHS players visibly did not have the same capabilities. They showed excellent heart in contesting for the ball, but there really was no one on the roster who could control the ball and push through defenders before having the ball deflected away.
This is the difference in a couple of years of experience in high school, and seasoning going back to the sixth grade.
A parent on the sidelines from Scripps Ranch said that at tryouts, the Falcon program cuts a third of those who tryout. That would be unheard of in a program like La Jolla's up to now that recruits players. For example, La Jolla had no goalie starting this season. The present goalie, a ninth-grader, was asked if she was willing to play in the goal. It is these kinds of situations that keep La Jolla at a pretty-good-but-not-great level, never quite getting over the hump.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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