Maryland-DC Field Hockey Association

Tjerk van Herwaarden, the technical director at the University of Maryland, is coming to the Champions Field House on four evenings in April to run special clinics.

Tjerk is also the assistant coach for the National Men’s team since 2006 and Head coach of the Mid Atlantic High Performance Teams. Tjerk is founder and co owner of World Camp USA and CEO of Princess Hockey USA.

Since Tjerk joined Maryland in 2005 the program has won three national championships (2005, 2006 & 2008) and three ACC championships (2005, 2008 & 2009).

Clinics:

Basic Technical Skills – Learn the keys receiving, tp get the power you need in your pass and to control the ball while dribbling. Tuesday, April 20.

Advanced Technical Skills – Learn to work with lifted ball, eliminate the defense while receiving and to fake out the defense before you pass. Thursday, April 22.

Scoring Skills – Get the proper skills to finish! Deflections, reverse shots and improving your footwork to get the shots off at the goal. Tuesday, April 27th

Defensive Skills – How to approach your opponent, learn about the steps to close down, apply pressure and eventually get the ball from your opponent. Thursday, April 29th

Middle school clinics are from 5:30 pm to 7 pm each day. High school clinics are between 7 pm and 8:30 pm. Cost is $175 for all four clinics.

Champions of Tomorrow is organizing three weekend spring tournaments on turf in April, May and June.

The first two events are April 24 and May 22 at Champions Field House near Rockville for kids in the U14, U12 and U10 groups.

These will be 7-v-7 games on turf fields inside the field house, simulating outdoor play. Cost is $275 per team per tournament. Play will be between 8 am and 2 pm. (Registration form here.)

The third tournament is for U12, U14, U16 and U19 teams and is outdoors on the turf fields at Discovery Sports Center in Germantown on June 13.

This, too, is a 7-v-7 event, costing $400 per team. The two younger classifications will play in the morning and the older groups will play in the afternoon. Final times will be determined closer to the event. (Registration form.)

All three tournaments will have playoffs and certified umpires. Waivers will be required for all players.

Call the field house at 301-838-7403 with any questions.

Johns Hopkins is holding its annual spring play day on April 18 and organizers are looking for U16 and U19 teams. Cost is just $200 per team.

The 7 v 7 tournament will feature 8 to 10 teams in each age group. Clubs are guaranteed at least four 20- to 25-minute games. The pools fill up quickly, so interested clubs should contact Megan Fraser (meganfraser@jhu.edu) without delay.

The U16 games will be between 10 am and 2pm, with the U19 matches starting at 2:30 pm and finishing around 6:30 pm. The games are played on half-size pitches, on the university’s turf Homewood Field in Baltimore. USFHA membership not required, though all participants will need to sign a waiver.

The field is several miles north of downtown Baltimore, near the intersection of North Charles St. and West University Parkway.

Coaches are invited to attend a Level 1 clinic Sunday, Jan. 31 at the University of Maryland. Successful completion earns coaches a Level 1 certification.

The clinic runs from from 10 am to 4 pm at the university’s Heritage Hall, located in the Comcast Center. The building is off Paint Branch Drive (see map below) in College Park. Marybeth Freeman, associate head coach of the university’s hockey team, will present and run the clinic.

To sign up, go to www.usafieldhockey.com. The session is in the first group, near the bottom — look for it by the date, 1/31/2010.

You must hold a US Field Hockey membership as a coach to register. Cost is $50 for non-Futures coaches.

The Comcast Center is to the left of the intramural fields in the map below. If you’ve been to the university’s hockey complex, then you’ll remember the center is up the hill from the hockey stadium.

View UMd Intramural Fields in a larger map

[UPDATE -- use this link to register, so we know how many are coming...]

Umpires, players, coaches and parents wanting to better understand indoor hockey are invited to a special indoor rules clinic this month.

The free clinic, sponsored by the Maryland-DC Field Hockey Association, is on Jan. 18 from noon to 1 pm at the Champions Fieldhouse near Rockville. Anyone may attend.

Participants will hear review the international rules that govern indoor hockey and learn some of the differences between indoor and outdoor rules and how umpires are taught to interpret them. Indoor hockey is very different than outdoor high school hockey.

The group will be able to watch games as longtime umpires Donna Richardson and Dave Cranmer take turns commenting on the call and the play.

Richardson has been engaged in field hockey as a player, coach and umpire for 30 years while Cranmer has been umpiring for eight years and playing indoor field hockey for two. Both are certified umpire coaches and each holds a USA Field Hockey Level 2 rating.

For more information, contact Dave Cranmer at 301.807.3562 or dave@phase3consulting.com.

U.S. Men’s Junior National Field Hockey Team goalie Andrew Zayac is teaching an advanced goalkeeping clinic Jan. 17 (a Sunday) from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Howard County’s new Meadowbrook Athletic Complex.

The clinic is open to anyone aged 14 and older and costs $35. Players must bring their own equipment and sneakers or turf shoes — no cleats are allowed inside the building.

The Meadowbrook Athletic Complex is at 5001 Meadowbrook Lane, Ellicott City, MD (near the intersection of highways MD 100 and U.S. 29. Office phone is (443) 891-2431.

Register in advance (with this form) and pay on-site.

For more info: call Dona DeZube (301) 490-9997 or email dezube@comcast.net

Nine clubs from Maryland/DC took teams to the National Hockey Festival last week and while just one won its pool, several did very well, finishing in the middle or top half of their pools. (Click team name for official US Field Hockey results.)

U19 clubs

The Baltimore Blitz struggled in the M Pool, scoring but one goal and losing all six of its games.

At the other extreme was Club Applebee USA of Baltimore, which won the N Pool with five wins and a tie.

In Pool H, the Jackals from Rockville finished third in what might be called the Tie Pool. Jackals had three ties (along with two wins and only one loss) and everybody in the pool had at least two ties, with one team with four. No team could muster more than three wins.

The Shore team of Easton finished next to last in the J Pool, even though it had the same record as the last-place finisher. The difference was the goal-differential. Shore surprisingly scored almost as many goals as it allowed — 13 to 14 — but there weren’t enough goals at the right time and the team finished with one win and five losses. The last-place team also went 1-5, but scored only 4 and gave up 23.

Southeast Storm came oh-so-close to winning the Q Pool, finishing second despite not losing a game. The difference? Two ties, while the first place squad had one loss — to Southeast — but no ties.

Over in the E Pool, SPark from Millersville finished fourth in a very tough pool, which included perennial powerhouse and eventual pool winner Sutter’s Brigade. SPark finished with three wins and losses but struggled to score, registering only seven goals in their six games. All three of the team’s losses were shutouts.

Spitfire from Howard County scored 12 goals and gave up 12 goals and thus predictably finished in the middle of Pool R with two wins, three losses and a tie. Spitfire lost to the eventual winner by only one goal but also gave the last place team its only win.

U16 Clubs

Capitol Pegasus was shut out of three games in the ZZ Pool, and scored shutouts in two of its three wins. In fact only one game the group played in was NOT a shutout.

TNT of Cockeysville lost its only game in the YY Pool to the eventual champion and by only one goal. The group finished second with a five win, one loss record. The team gave up only three goals the entire tournament.

Howard County is offering a special indoor league for club teams this winter and one of the organizers says this is a chance to convince county officials to offer court time for hockey.

“They allowed us to set up this league as a pilot program to gauge the interest in indoor hockey in the area,” wrote Spitfire coach Jim Brown in an email to his fellow club coaches. “Many of you have expressed interest in this concept in general and in this league specifically but no clubs have yet registered. If we do not fill this league, the Howard County officials will not continue to support indoor hockey and will relegate the courts to other sports. We need you to help us make a statement to the county that hockey deserves resources that many other sports already receive.”

The league will be Sunday afternoons or evenings in January and February at the new Meadowbrook recreation center near Ellicott City.

The league has been scheduled to avoid other leagues that run around the region as well as Super Bowl Sunday and the Maryland Club Championships.

The league is designed to better accommodate teams that aren’t as close to Ellicott City, playing fewer dates than a traditional league but more games on game days. The hope is that this will draw club teams from a broader geographic area.

Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Some of the details (download a flier for more, including contact and registration information):

• U14: Team cost is $500, games on Sundays, 4 pm to 6 pm. Dates are Jan. 31, Feb. 14, 21, 28.
• U16: $700, Sundays, 6 pm to 9 pm, Jan. 3, 24, Feb. 21, Feb 28
• U19: $700, Sundays, 6 pm to 9 pm, Jan. 10, 17, 31, Feb. 14

Each date involves multiple games for each team, with a round robin format in pool play. U14: 2 games (3 team-pools); U16/U19: 3 games (4 team-pools)

The USFHA released the list of qualifying indoor tournament assignments on Friday (Nov. 13) and Maryland teams will be traveling as far as central Virginia and central Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Teams must do well in the qualifying tournaments in order to win a spot in the National Indoor Tournament, which is March 5 through March 7 in Virginia Beach, Va. Winning the tournament or finishing in the top few spots secures a spot in the NIT. How many sports are awarded at each qualifier depends on the number of teams in each tourney.

Here’s the list of who goes where, listing only DC and MD teams. To see the entire list for a particular qualifier, see the USFHA site.

Clubs participating in an outdoor event this season, such as the National Hockey Festival, the Mason-Dixon festival or the Disney event in February can still get into the Champions of Tomorrow tournament on Nov. 21 (a Saturday) in McLean, Va.

Teams are guaranteed four 40-minute games on full-size fields, with playoffs at the end. As of Monday (Nov. 9) COT was looking for one more U19 teams and a couple of U16 teams.

The tournament is on the grass fields at The Madeira School.

Contact: Niki at niki@championsoftomorrow.com

Registration.