Throughout their season, the Malden High School varsity field hockey has gone through many ups and downs. Even though the team didn’t make it to championships, MHS is proud to be represented by such a hard-working, determined, and dedicated team. As a team, they are strongly encouraged by their teammates, family members, coaches, and by the community. Every day they practiced and played strong. Almost over with their season, the girls had a very intense game against Everett, allowing them to shoot in a couple of goals in which raised them to their fourth goal of the season.
Day by day, the team took the time to themselves to practice harder and come up with new strategies to use for their games. Everyday, varsity head coach, Kimberly Barber, shared new techniques and skills to help them improve individually and as a team. Senior Captain Terrica Dang explained how “one big thing [they] would do before the games would be [their Malden] cheer. [Senior Captain] Haley [Hoffman] really pumps [the team] up by screaming out [their] cheer in [their] huddle before each game [which] gets [them] super amped for the game ahead.”
Senior Marwa Khudaynazar confessed that “usually [they] get super excited if one of [their] teammates scored.” Whenever the team doesn’t no practice for one day, it’s hard to be motivated to do anything, so to help keep the energy level high during practices, junior Julia Cocuzzo said that “[they] listened to up-tempo songs which always made everyone in a better mood, so it was easier for [them] all to get motivated to push [themselves].”
In any sport, every season is different. Tom Brady might have helped the Patriots to the Super Bowl, but it does not mean the same would happen for Zdeno Chára and the Bruins. As Cocuzzo explained, “the season was a long journey where [they] continued to strive and push [themselves] to become better. [Their] record might not show it, but in the end [she] knows [they] all pushed each other and all became better players. Barber said how she always tells her team “to not give up on [themselves and to] always push [themselves] and to always stay positive.”
With each day that went by during the season, the team was able to bond as they became closer with each other and their coaches. Junior Aigul FitzGerald said she “[loves all of the] different types of people coming together for one goal, but [she] liked to push [herself] harder each time or every game and try new things to improve [her] skills.” FitzGerald also spoke on behalf of the team saying, how their level of skills “is not [really] reflected [in their] record, though [they] know, as a team, [they] have gave their best this season. Although, the team, each year, wants to improve more and more.”
As the season came to an end, the team was upset, not only because the season had ended, but also because five seniors are leaving the team. Senior captains Katie Howe, Hoffman, Dang, along with seniors Khudaynazar and Bia Alves, have each left their own marks on the team. While they may be moving onto bigger and better things, the underclassmen will definitely miss them.
With the season over, the team had already begun building themselves for next year. Current juniors Julia Cocuzzo, Caitlyn Leonard, and Erin Mulcahy were recently named captains for the next season. Douglas Alves hopes the next season they will “win the GBL title, {as] they are capable of winning but [they] lose the mentality because sometimes [they] go into the game with such high expectations for [themselves] then just [get frustrated] and give up on [themselves].”
Even though they didn’t have the best record, 0-16-1 the MHS field hockey team was proud to have a great season with each other, As the season came to an end, the team believes that, together, they will do great next season with all of the skills they have to succeed and go farther into the season than ever.
