Can Field Hockey Come Home To Columbia University?
Courtesy of Columbia Spectator
Written by Lauren Clark
October 13, 2005
Ah, homecoming. The one time in a season when the entire athletics community gets to rise up and pretend that its athletes can truly be glorious in all physical tasks.
Universally, it is the chance for all school teams to intimidate their opponents with their impressive fan base and wander from field to field to finally get a chance to see each other play. From ancient alumni bragging about how they used to dominate in intramural basketball, to psyched-up freshmen thinking that this will be the defining experience of their collegiate careers, everyone takes this opportunity to revel in the possibilities of all athletes who wear their school colors.
Well, get real, Columbia fans, because that sure as hell isn't going to happen here this weekend.Aside from the campus-wide disaster known as Bakergate (why nobody else has picked up on this genius phrasing is completely beyond me), whereby most of the undergrad population has already pledged to boycott traditional tailgating activities, a major disservice is being done to a group of Columbia's own athletes who would normally count on homecoming to be one of the highlights of their season.
Because of "field improvements" recently made on Baker Field, the Columbia field hockey team has been forced to play their home matches this season all across the Tri-State area, with no other suitable surface to be found among the University's facilities.
While the installation of FieldTurf at Wien Stadium, which is where the field hockey team formerly hosted games, has provided the football team with an excellent playing surface for their needs, the new synthetic material is an absolute nightmare to play field hockey on. The balls used in the sport are small and rubbery, but if you've ever hit one at the right angle, you know that they can move surprisingly fast. Even on natural grass, a hard hit can easily fly to the other end of the field, but with a plastic-like surface like FieldTurf, just forget about it... An Olympic sprinter couldn't catch up with that stuff.
So, head coach Katie Beach (who actually does happen to be a former Olympian), was faced with an immediate dilemma when she was notified of the change this summer, knowing that she had to secure a replacement fast. Yet while the school pledged funds to finding them a permanent home, they have bounced around various nearby venues ever since. From practice facilities up at Riverside Park to fields in Connecticut and New Jersey, the team has struggled to find a place where they can consistently play.
So this weekend, while most of their peers in the Light Blue will be storming 216th Street with school pride, these Lions will be hosting their homecoming from Hofstra University out on Long Island. And I wouldn't expect for any fans to make an appearance, other than a select group of parents and perhaps some really devoted alumni. (I remember back in my senior year of high school when our final homecoming game was scheduled for 8 a.m., while everything else started at 3 p.m., and no one showed up. If I thought I was pissed then, I can't imagine how these girls feel.)
The University that they play their hearts out for on the field has let them down. While most women's sports at Columbia have historically dwelled in the cellars of their division, the field hockey team has jumped out to their best start in years, with an early 5-6 record. Even with this relative success, the best the team can hope for now is impressing the administration to the point where they can garner their own playing space.
Despite these setbacks, the team is still determined to make the best of its situation. Instead of having their annual alumni game this weekend, they have postponed it until an October 29th match-up against Yale. Though the contest is scheduled to take place out in Hoboken, N.J., the team is trying to drum up campus support by inviting the Columbia University Marching Band and organizing all of their annual alumni activities around it.
"I don't know that if it's even going to be considered our homecoming game," senior captain Diana Day said of this weekend's action. "It hasn't even really been in our vocabulary. It's just another ‘home' game at Hofstra."
