Rankings

The past season in 2010 the NCAA ranked the following teams top 10:
1 - Maryland
2 - North Carolina
3 - Virgina
4 - Connenecuit
5 - Syracuse
6 - Ohio State
7 - Princeton
8 - Michigan
9 - Penn State
10 - Old Dominion

With the spring seasons just ending and Summer months up ahead all the coaches are hoping their athletes continue to train so they can be the best of the best. Most all Division I programs report back to school for pre-season starting August 10th. The teams will train and have pre-season games before their regular season starts. It is hard to tell which team is going to be the most powerful or even estimate a top 10 list for the 2011 season. The reason for this is no coach knows how their new freshman will mesh to the team as well as how much playing time and impact they will have. Pre-season is always an exciting time to see what you have.

How to get recruited today

The best way to get recruited for Division I field hockey today are attending tournaments. College coaches rarely go to high school games and follow high schools anymore. Today they go to tournament and recruit from the club teams. The popular tournaments that college coaches go to are college connections in PA, National Indoor Tournament in VA and the most popular is during Thanksgiving week is in Arizona called National Hockey Festival. This tournament has teams from all over the world come to compete. The majority of teams are from the U.S. but it has the best of the best teams. You can only participate if your team qualifies. This tournament is where all the college coaches go. They recruit and at the end of the tournament they will talk to you one on one about going to their school. Field Hockey recruits a little differently then other sports, but if you participate in these tournaments you are very likely to be getting noticed by a college coach.

Should the NCAA ban foreign players, who want to play in the US Division I programs?Mtdo

Certain Division I teams have more money then others. The teams that have more money usually tend to recruit the best of the best players. These great players are often from other countries. This is because players from other countries are known to be better and more skilled then players from the United States. Is this fair to schools that can't afford to bring in foreigners? Is it fair for American's who might get there spot taken away by a foreigner? These questions have been controversial in field hockey and in their programs. The schools that have more money will do whatever it takes to win. The schools that don't have enough money are the ones who think this is an unfair advantage. In my opninion, it is an unfair advantage. It should only be okay if all team have enough money to recruit foreigners.

Colleges don't offer Men's field hockey

Field Hockey is the world's third most popular sport. Women and men play field hockey all over the world. Men started this sport and women went along and followed them. In the U.S. field hockey is considered a female sport. There are no high schools or colleges that offer field hockey for men. Our country thinks of field hockey as a sport where you wear a skirt. However, for adult men there are leagues you can participate in during the summer. I know this because I played against a male team before. Our country does have a U.S. National Men's Field Hockey team, but that is it. Furthermore, why don't we offer it to boys and men when they younger? To me, this doesn't make sense. Our country should have a mens field hockey team at the college level. In every other country but ours it is normal for men to play field hockey.

Are Spring Tournaments a real way to evaluate a team?

This past weekend was the first weekend Spring Tournaments started. All teams participated in different tournaments around the country. However, with the Seniors not being a part of it and the incoming freshman not at school yet, are spring tournaments a real way to evaluate how well a team is performing? 

The incoming freshman have not arrived, most tournaments are only 7 v 7 because they don't have eleven healthy players ready to play. Spring time is when if a player is injured they take the time off to rest before the season begins in the fall. In my opinion, spring tournaments are not a good way to evaluate a team. They are meaningless and you do not have your full team to see how well you can perform.

rule, does it help or hurt the sport?

The new rule that took affect in August 2010 has had a huge effect on the field hockey game. The new rule is that if the officials call a free hit instead of passing the ball the girl can move five yards and take it herself. Some disadvantages to this is that the team defending this will not get in back in time. However, the advantages is that the game moves a lot faster. The games is more exciting and you don't have to wait to get the ball, you can just go. In my opinion, the advantages out weight the disadvantages

Top D3 schools moving up to D1

The College of New Jersey is a Division I program. Each year they make it to the NCAA DIII tournament. Some years they win it, some years they come up close. However, this program is extremely strong. They play some DI schools during pre-season and put up a fight and even beat them. TCNJ should get moved up to DI. They have the facilities, astro turf field and the level of competition just like DI programs have. There are teams that are DI for example, Siena, St. Francis and Robert Morris who each year have a loosing record. This past season Monmouth University beat Siena 10 - 0. Siena does not put up a good competition and should move down to DIII, while TCNJ takes Siena's spot for DI.