Well, about 10 days ago, this happened.
It’s a surprising reversal, especially considering the poor percentage of “save the team” campaigns we’ve seen in field hockey since starting this site 26 years ago. And, in contrast to the seeming inevitability of the dropping of field hockey in the three schools in the city of Temecula, the school board’s vote was a unanimous 4-0 result to retain field hockey in the schools.
But, as sometimes happens in these kinds of situations, there is a lot of work to do. First off, there has to be some fence-mending because two head coaches — Jim Dall at Temecula (Calif.) Valley and Brian Carter at Temecula Chaparral (Calif.) were dismissed the day before the meeting.
Thing is, there’s a third part of the stepstool that needs attention, and that’s what to do with field hockey at Chaparral; the team reportedly was not going to have a varsity team in the fall of 2025.
Dr. Joseph Komrosky, one of the trustees, laid out a number of steps that are going to have to be taken after the passage of a resolution. Part of it would include the rehiring of any dismissed coaches, full funding of all three teams, as well as JV and freshman teams, as well as a robust marketing program for middle schools.
That’s where the real work is in order to not only maintain the game, but grow it in the nation’s most populous state.