The DePaul Prep Athletic Department has seen major growth in the last few years, leading to the creation of 12 new competitive teams since 2018. One of these programs is girl’s field hockey, which began last year and has already been building its reputation as one of DePaul’s largest sport teams.
The varsity team currently holds a roster of 22 girls with six seniors and all grade levels represented.
Senior and varsity co-captain, Paulina Morris, shared that “Zoe Argianas and I had a meeting with (Athletic Director) Mr. Mahoney to start a field hockey team my sophomore year, and he was all for it.”
Zoe Argianas is another senior co-captain who played an important role in starting the team.
Morris and Argianas talked about what they needed to start a team. Mahoney then sent out a memo to DePaul Prep staff searching for interest in coaching, which theology teacher, Emily Davis, responded to.
Davis now leads the team with the help of assistant coach, Sara Conneely, who shared that “I had no field hockey experience coming into this. I had never seen a game. I learned what I needed to know, and I took an online coaching course for field hockey specifically.”
Conneely also works as a theology teacher and Model UN moderator at DePaul Prep, so becoming a field hockey coach only added to her involvement.
“I got involved because Coach Davis had held an interest meeting and fifty girls signed up for tryouts. She was going to be the only adult there, which is very overwhelming, so I told her that I’d come the week of tryouts until they found another coach. By the end of the week, I turned to her and told her ‘I think I’m a coach for this program now,’” Conneely said.
Davis and Conneely have led the program through large expansion during the last two seasons. The program began as a junior varsity team last year, but now consists of both a junior varsity and varsity team this season.
“Last year, we had 32 girls on the team. This year, we have two teams. The varsity team has around 22 athletes. Jv has 18 or 19 athletes, so we’ve grown in size by about ten people. We had to make cuts this year, which was really hard,” Conneely stated.
The creation of a varsity team means that the team is now facing more difficult competition. “This league has only had two new teams in the last fifteen years, so everyone else has super established programs,” Conneely added.
Senior co-captain, Cat Gonzalez, reminds that this makes the DePaul Prep field hockey’s team performance even more impressive. “You have to realize these teams have been around way longer than we have,” she said.
While the varsity team’s record currently stands at 0-4, JV holds a win at 1-1-2. However, the majority of players don’t view their record negatively, but instead as part of the new program’s growing pains.
“I think it will take a few years, but right now is really the starting point. I think that we need to build a foundation that a future team can build off of, so building a foundation for success in the future is what we need to focus on right now,” Gonzalez said.
Despite a number of tough losses, the team continues to give each game their all.
“I don’t think there have been any games where I’ve looked at the girls and have felt like they weren’t trying. Everyone is putting it all out there every single game, so we are really trying to play to the best of our ability at all times, Conneely emphasizes.
To achieve a more competitive record, games and practices consist of a lot of conditioning.
Conneely shared, “In a game, you can run up to seven miles, so we want to make sure that our athletes are able to do that without burning out.”
Varsity player, Lauren Brown, felt that “The conditioning is very hard, but it’s what we have to do to get in the best shape and win games.”
Despite the team showing devotion to the game’s fundamentals, team bonding remains a priority. Morris said that, “Even if you aren’t that close with someone on the team, everyone is friendly and talks to each other. It makes the sport a lot more fun. It’s nice to go to practice everyday, since you have a lot of friends on the team.”
Argianas had a similar opinion. “My favorite part of the team is the dynamic that we all have. There’s no bad energy,” she said.
Using this energy, the team looks to the future with positivity. Argianas added, “I see this program growing more and more each year. As long as we have dedicated girls out there, we will become one of the biggest sports programs at DePaul.”
“I really hope we continue to be known as an exciting program that’s really encouraging our athletes to not just be good athletes, but good people as well,” said Conneely.
Conneely now hopes that the team can hold some packed home games, throughout the rest of the season. Varsity field hockey will host senior night on October 3rd, and both teams will have home games on Saturday, October 7th.
