Over the years, their School of Princeton (NJ) has a fairly good field hockey tradition, which plays in the NJSIwaa, which compete for titles, and in 1992, a large public school in Princeton Junction West Windsor-Plainsboro (NJ) with an overtime that sharing the Mercer County Tournament title.
In the past, they sent them to good schools and age group of national teams. One alumna, a keeper named Meris Burton, was the starter for the United States during a Junior World Cup in the mid -nineties.
They then had a lot of his success and then played on a lawn near the stony stream that cuts over the edge of the campus. As such, it was a difficult place to play because it would not dry out so well after even a small shower, making it a little miracle that the raiders played as well as they do.
But when they placed an artificial lawn on their football stadium more than ten years ago, that was an absolute game changer. They are now holding his trade in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, in addition to Pottstown Hill School (PA.), The best team in the country in recent years.
Today they are going to do something that even Hill has not done: the Raiders are in Dublin, Ireland who plays a preseason -friendly in the National Hockey Stadium. I have not been able to distinguish exactly who the opposition is, but it hardly matters.
What matters are the cultural interactions that head coach Tracey Larson Arndt and her team members will have during a visit. And it is a unique experience, because international competition for American scholastic field hockey teams is extremely rare. I remember players from a Scottish team and were organized by one of the local Mercer County teams.
I also remember that I went to Virginia Beach in the life cycle of this site to see a South African team play in the Sun Devil Invitational. It was interesting that in the last game the visitors to the St. Mary’s school in Johannesburg would eventually place three of his players in the South African national team. The opposition, Van East Chapel Hill (NC), would have the future national teacher Michelle Kasold.
Since then I have only heard of a few teams, mostly from northern states, who crossed the border to Canada to play while I run this site. Such a team is Buffalo Nichols School (NY), which plays its league games in the Cisaa against teams in Ontario.
Interestingly enough, the their school was one of the teams that Nichols beat a year ago on their way to a 26-1 record.
Funny how these stories weave together.
#August #Create