A spring of players

Such a physical and exhausting game.

These thoughts came to mind as I took in my first field hockey

game last Thursday at Harper Community Center, where Newport Harbor’s

varsity team defeated Fountain Valley, 4-0, to improve to 7-0-2,

4-0-2 in the Sunset League and set a pace for a third-straight run to

the Tournament of Champions, the finals so to speak for high school

field hockey.

Girls wearing polo shirts, skirts and shin guards run up and down

the field relentlessly, breaking a sweat but rarely looking tired,

clashing sticks together to get control of the orange ball that is

about the diameter of a baseball.

The shin guards are virtually the only protection the girls wear

besides mouthpieces and the padding and mask goalies wear.

As a Fountain Valley player reared back to pass the ball forward,

I thought to myself how much it must hurt if a player takes a ball to

the chest, stomach, head, upper thigh, anywhere but the shins.

And occasionally the ball hit a player on the waist or on the

shoulder causing me to say “ouch.” But the girls keep on playing,

like they just walked through a feather.

These girls are fit and tough and there are plenty of them in the

Newport-Mesa area.

Newport Harbor is a virtual breeding ground of field hockey

players where the success seeps down to the lower levels.

On Saturday, Kim Erickson’s frosh-soph team (7-1) won the Orange

County Invitational, going 5-0-1 playing a junior varsity schedule,

including a 2-1 win over Edison in the championship game.

The Sailors were the only school that boasted a frosh-soph team in

the tournament.

Newport’s Danica Kalmbach scored the winning goal against Santa

Ana in the semifinals after the teams went to sudden death following

a 0-0 tie in regulation.

In the title game, Laura Vassar scored the first goal off a corner

and Jackie Taylor scored Newport’s second goal unassisted.

The frosh-soph roster also includes Shannon Arnold, Amanda Carver,

Jaclyn Drake, Kirstie Lane, Stephanie McDonald, Shawnee Moges, Nicole

Newquist, Sienna Palmer, Darci Pennington, Lara Schilling, Tessa

Shane, Lauren Smith and Brittany Ward.

As of Thursday, Newport’s junior varsity team led the Sunset

League with a 4-0-1 league mark with Santa Ana (4-1-0) and Edison

(3-0-2) closely following.

JV coach Devon Kelly had these words to say when asked if this

year’s team is as strong as last year’s squad, which won league.

“We’re definitely as strong,” Kelly said.

Kelly also coaches with Sue Ramondo, a collegiate All-American in

lacrosse and field hockey.

“(Ramondo) has a lot of brains,” Kelly said.

The junior varsity team went 2-2 in the OC Invite, which pleased

varsity coach Sharon Wolfe.

“They did well considering they were playing against varsity

competition,” Wolfe said.

This year’s JV roster features forwards Amanda Fallon and Julia

Bernay, midfielders Maddie Anderson and Jenny Taylor along with

Clemmie Anderson, Whitney Browman, Carley Chamberlain, Tracey Cowie,

Lindsi Foster, Sasha Grumman, Amanda Hoffenberg, Casey Ibbetson,

Ciara Lawrence, Jill Lynes, Ashley McIntosh, Liza Pemstein, Allyson

Ramser, Cologne Schmidt, Reese Simmons, Rachel Thompson and Rachel

Zarnow.

All three Newport teams total 57 players, with 20 on varsity, 21

on JV and 16 on the frosh-soph team.

Quite a farm system has developed at Newport -- and in judging by

last week’s 4-0 varsity win over Fountain Valley, once the girls get

to the top level, they are ready for the fiercest competition.

Most schools only carry a varsity team, with JV and freshman teams

few and far between, Wolfe said.

Playing varsity competition can only make the frosh-soph and JV

teams better so if and when the players make it to varsity they will

be able to carry on the recent winning ways at Newport Harbor.