With the 23-24 fall season underway, the Osbourn Eagles field hockey team has an amazing start with a 6-5 overall from their 11 out of 16 games. This year the team has a total of 12 returning players and 7 new players, allowing them to form a JV and Varsity team. As the new additions to the team learn more about the game, the team continues to grow and become a strong unit, recovering from a rough 2-14 overall during the 22-23 season.

At first glance, field hockey seems like a very difficult sport to learn but it’s actually very similar to Soccer. The rules of soccer and field hockey are pretty much the same except players must use their stick instead of their feet to dribble the ball. During a game, each team has 11 players on the field made up of offensive and defensive positions known as goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards, “I play right forward. I help in transitions and clearing the ball in the midfield. I work with the midfielders to move the ball into the offensive zone. A big part of playing Right Forward is watching the back door and waiting on the goalpost to tip the ball into the goal,” said junior, Emma Lindenfelser. Lindenfelser is one of the three Varsity captains as a junior.

With such a small group of girls, the JV and Varsity practices are at the same time which allows every girl on the team to get to know one another better. Not only does the team bond on the field but the field hockey team has a few unique traditions they like to do every season outside of practice, “The team has been doing ribbons for each other since the Osbourn field hockey program has started! This allows the girls to show their personality and get ready for each game. We have restarted the tradition of team dinners. Team dinner once a week allows us to gather and hang out outside of practice,” said Coach Innamarato.

The field hockey season is looking bright for our Lady Eagles, but every player as their own goals they want to accomplish by the end of this season, “My goals for us this season are to try and score at least one goal against every team we play or at least have a shot on goal every game,” said senior Kendall Herring. Herring being a Varsity player has worked hard to help the team with this goal, as Varsity has only gone 2 games without scoring, but have always had shots on goal.

“My goals for this season is to score at least 10 goals and to assist at least 5 goals. I have these goals because this year our team has been quite collaborative which allows these goals to be achievable,” said senior Kaya Graham. Graham is also one of the three Varsity captains and helped to pursue this goal as the Field Hockey team has a total of 23 scored goals so far this season!

With returning players who have played together for a couple of seasons now, and new players on the team who haven’t the Eagles field hockey has had to make some adjustments to how they play the game. Though every game is different, the team has quickly learned how to play with one another and connected easily, “I think we all do work together well because we are such a small group that we all work together more in practice and we’re close with every player on the team,” said sophomore, Sophia Vandivere. Vandivere has been playing field hockey since her freshman year and is 1 of the 2 JV Captains.

Like most professional or even high school sports teams, everyone has a rival. The Eagles field hockey team plays many different schools like Patriot High School and Gainesville High School, “[I would say] Osbourn Park and Unity Reed. These are teams that we have always battled against. They are the closest to our school as well and creates some “turf” battles,” said Innamarato.

While most of the whole team’s fall season is consumed with field hockey, a couple of the girls play other OHS sports including lacrosse, basketball, softball, and track. Meanwhile, other players on the team get to enjoy their off-season to focus on themselves, “I swim and play lacrosse at Osbourn, so I still spend a lot of time at school. Outside of school, my figure skating team has more practices and competitions during the winter after field hockey ends, so I am able to dedicate more time to the team,” said Lindenfelser.

With 5 games left to go, here is how our Eagles field hockey team has done so far!

8/21, 8/22, and 8/23: The Eagles played 2 pre-season scrimmages against Mount Vernon and Annandale High School before Varsity had 3 back-to-back games against Hylton (1-0), Potomac (6-0), and John R. Lewis (1-0). The Eagles played hard and brought home 3 wins for Osbourn!

8/29: Varsity had their first district game against Unity Reed High School, and won 3-0.

8/31: JV and Varsity played Patriot High School, it was a tough loss for both JV (0-10) and Varsity (0-10).

9/5: The Eagles JV and Varsity teams played Gainesville High School, JV took a tough loss of 0-4. Varsity started off strong scoring the first goal of the game, but ended up losing 1-7.

9/7: Once again, JV and Varsity played Battlefield High School, JV lost 0-3, and Varsity lost 1-7.

9/11: Osbourn played home against their rival, Osbourn Park High School, and held their ground winning 2-0.

9/14: Osbourn Varsity played Garfield High School and crushed them 6-0!

9/20: Varsity rode the bus out to Freedom High School (South Riding) and played an eventful game but took a loss of 2-6.

9/21: The Eagles Varsity played Unity Reed High School for their second game, it was a nail-biting game but the Eagles lost 0-1.

Come support your Osbourn Eagles Field Hockey team for their final home game, and SENIOR NIGHT against Freedom High School (South Riding) on Wednesday, October 11th!