Budget-Friendly Family Sports: Giving Field Hockey a Shot

My daughter Megan was born with a soccer ball at her feet and a total aversion to anything even remotely girly. So, when I told her we were going to go watch a sport in which the girls are known to don matching hair bows and always play in skirts, she was not exactly excited. 

Within a minute of walking into the opening game of the field hockey season at the University of Maryland, her views changed. She was shocked at the speed of the game and the fearlessness of the players. At the end of the night she gave the team the ultimate compliment from a card carrying tomboy.

"The only person I saw flinch the whole night was that photographer who was hit by the ball. Those are some seriously tough girls," she said.

 Having done a little research before we arrived, I thought I was prepared. But, reading about the number-two team in the country and seeing them in action are two different things.

While field hockey at the high school and club level is played on grass, at the college level it is played on turf which allows for very little dead time in a game. The ball flies across the field with players in hot pursuit, bending and whacking at it with power that would put most men to shame.  My daughter was right, these girls are tough.

As a soccer mom, I hadn't given field hockey a second thought until meeting UMD Coach Missy Meharg. I told her I was considering writing a series of articles about inexpensive sporting events available to the public at the university and then asked her how much the tickets were.

I thought she was kidding when she said that their games are free. Free? Nothing is free when it comes to sports, right? Wrong. 

The games are absolutely free, including the parking right next to the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.  

Coach Meharg is very proud of her team and the program itself, which she should be.  Maryland has won seven ACC Championships under Meharg's direction and six NCAA Championships, five of them since Meharg became head coach in 1985. This year UMD will host the NCAA Championships.   

As the number two-team in the country, the program is a magnet for girls in our area and beyond. The stands are filled with girls who play on club and high school teams throughout Maryland and as far away as Pennsylvania. 

Sitting in the stands I heard a coach sitting with his team of 14-year-old girls pointing out the difference in the game at this level and talking about the things they might be able to work on. These girls get to watch their sport being played by greats like Katie O'Donnell, a US National Team member since 2005.

Through this experience, they realize exactly how far this sport can take them. Not only that, they also see an athlete who is excelling in this sport and having fun doing it. 

As we drove away at the end of the night, Megan talked about the speed of play, the guts it takes to step onto a field with those sticks and the pure strength each of the players had to possess. Megan agreed to come with me to this game because she didn't want me to have to go by myself, but as the night wore on, she began to talk about coming back out to watch again. And for this price, who am I to say no?

Ann Brennan, a mother of three, has learned to be frugal with her family's entertainment budget. Most weekends she can be found at one sporting event or another on the University of Maryland campus. She is also the creator of the blog Ann in Real Life and Ann's Running Commentary. If you have a budget-friendly family sports tip for her that you would like to see reviewed in this space, let her know!

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