(Image via The Daily Gazette)

Most people don’t believe me when I tell them, but my freshman year in high school I played field hockey. Yes, field hockey with the little sticks. I know you’re all wondering, and yes, I was the tallest one on the team, even as a freshman. However, the thing that mostly shocks people is that I chose to play field hockey over volleyball, the typical sport that a 5’9, 12-year-old would play. But why? 

To be honest, looking back, I regret not trying out for volleyball my freshman year, but quite frankly I was too scared to try out for the team. This is because, embarrassingly enough, I was cut from the middle school volleyball team in both 7th AND 8th grade, and I was NOT about to get cut in high school too. So, where did the field hockey idea come from, of all sports?  

During my freshman orientation, there were a variety of sports teams, clubs, and various organizations at tables around the school recruiting freshmen to join or try out for their teams. When I passed the volleyball table, the coaches practically ran after me and begged me to try out, but the PTSD of being cut in middle school had still haunted me and I smiled but told myself that I would never again in my life touch a volleyball. Then suddenly as if angels had parted from the sky, I heard the magic words. “Everyone makes the team!” I nearly broke my neck to turn around and see “Chancellor High School Field Hockey” written on the table that I had just heard the magic words spoken from. I walked over to find out more information and was told that as long as I attended the conditioning Monday-Friday, 7:30am-12pm, the entire summer until tryouts, I was indeed guaranteed a spot on the team. Guess who spent their entire summer conditioning for field hockey? ME.  

However, my first issue arose when I went to Dick’s to buy a field hockey stick. A typical field hockey stick is supposed to go to the top of the players hip bone, but as you all know, my insanely long legs clearly didn’t allow for this. Even the specialty sticks that were available online weren’t long enough, so I was stuck with a stick that was disproportional to my body in comparison to the other girls.

(Image via Best Field Hockey Stick Sizing)                                                                                                                              

My second issue was “getting low”. Not only did my knees not allow for this, but no matter how low I got, it wasn’t low enough, and I still towered over everyone else. To make matters worse, one of the rules of field hockey is that you can’t swing your stick past your hip bone but considering that my hip was practically the height of other girls’ faces, it was pretty much inevitable that I would smash someone in the face. Fortunately, when this happened, I didn’t smash her face but instead pushed her jaw out of place. The worst part? This was still during conditioning and she was a sophomore on the team. Yikes.

(Image via Reddit)

Luckily for me, the week before tryouts I went on vacation to Florida, and while I was on vacation I broke my anterior inferior iliac spine playing limbo, and thus was unable to play for the entire season although I was still on the team (literally only because I went to every day of conditioning so that had to let me on). To say the least, it was quite an interesting experience, but you can bet that I did NOT try out the next year, and instead decided to try out volleyball one last time. It ended up working out, and I have been playing volleyball since then and still do on the Penn State Club Volleyball Team. What did I learn, you’re wondering? Ultimately, I learned that some sports just aren’t meant for tall, clumsy people like myself, and I’m okay with that. 

Thanks for tuning in! 

Madison