Maryland-DC Field Hockey Association

Players from Maryland and the metro DC area looking for a spot on a National Hockey Festival team can try out with the East Coast Field Hockey club on Oct. 8.

ECFH, based in central Pennsylvania, is holding tryouts at Champions Field House at 4 pm on Saturday, Oct. 8. Players who make the squad will practice several weekends in the DC area during November before traveling to Arizona for Festival.

The club is branching out into the MD/VA/DC area with what it’s calling a “NOVA Chapter,” directed by the head coach at Madeira School in McLean, Chrissy Lewis. Her contact information is here, along with more information about the tryouts and the club.

Unable to make the tryout? Contact Lewis directly to make other arrangements.

The University of Maryland hockey team is sponsoring a skills clinic, offering a chance for players to get some coaching from the national champions.

The clinic at the field hockey complex starts at 9 am on Sunday, Sept. 4, and ends at 11. Following that is the UMd-Michigan game at 1. Cost is $50 and interested players can register by sending your name, age and position to fieldhockey@umd.edu.

Click on the image at right for more.

There’s an opening for a JV coach at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, just as pre-season practice is about to start.

During the season the team practices daily after school. Pre-season practice starts Saturday.

Contact Whitman’s athletic director Andy Wetzel 301-320- 6595 to apply or for more information.

Churchill High School in Potomac is looking for a JV coach for the fall.

The job is a stipend position beginning Aug. 13. The coach should expect to work five to six days a week, with practices generally in the afternoon between 3 pm and 6 pm. Churchill is off Tuckerman Lane, west of I-270 and north of the beltway.

Interested candidates should contact Churchill Athletic Director David Kelley.

Atholton High School in Howard County has a new varsity coach familiar to most — Jesse Larson — and he reports the school still needs a JV coach.

And over in Arundel, JV Coach Tiffany O’Donnell at Annapolis High School is looking for an assistant coach.

The Annapolis job, which can be part-time, is from 3 pm to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday and again on Saturday mornings, 8 am to 10 am. The Atholton job’s hours should be similar.

For the Atholton job, contact the school’s athletic director, Michael Senisi.

Contact Ms. O’Donnell if interested in the Annapolis job.

American University is hosting a tournament that will select athletes for the US National Team, which can lead to being selected for the upcoming Pan American Games and Olympics.

The free event starts Friday (May 20) at AU’s hockey field at the Northwest DC campus.

Athletes attending the Women’s National Championship will play in six matches, including the finals. USA Field Hockey’s National Coaching staff will be evaluating athlete performances throughout the week and selecting a handful of the most elite to fill the Women’s National and Development Squad rosters. The names of the selected players will be announced after the last match on May 27.

Schedule of matches and more details about the event are on the American University website.

USA Field Hockey today (May 4) posted the list of clubs who have gotten bids into the National Hockey Festival in November and nine U19 teams from Maryland and four U16 teams are in, with one in each group on a wait list.

The Festival is the premier national event for field hockey, taking place the week of Thanksgiving and returning again this year to Phoenix, Az.

The Maryland teams are listed at left, more details and clubs from other states are listed on the USAFH site.

Hometowns in the list are what USAFH has listed.

Pool assignments for teams will be released much closer to the event and we’ll post those here when we get them.

Meanwhile, some quick statistics on the U19 pool shows that Pennsylvania, as usual, has the most teams in the Festival — a whopping 42 out of nearly 150 teams total — followed by New Jersey with 19 and California with 16. Maryland? Nine, which is still more than Delaware and the same as Virginia.

List follows (click on headers to sort it by numbers or state):

Champions of Tomorrow is organizing the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Field Hockey Cup the last weekend in June.

There will be two days of true tournament competition, with pool play on Saturday, June 25, and double elimination followed by championship games on Sunday, June 26. All play is on the turf and grass fields at the Maryland Soccerplex in Germantown.

This tournament is designed to anticipate the format of the USFHA 2012 qualifiers for the Club National Championships and is intended to prepare teams attending the 2011 Championships. Age brackets are U19, U17 and U14.

Registration is open and Champions is looking for teams to play. See flyer for details.

With May in sight and camp season after that, here’s a handful of things going on soon:

Boys Hockey Program
The Spitfire club is offering a spring boys program from early May to early July culminating in a trip to the Garden State Games in Princeton, NJ. The program is for boys ages 8 to 18 and cost is $57 for 8 weeks of Sunday practices in Howard County. Sign up at http://spitfirehockey.org/boysfhprogram/boysregistration.html. Practices start May 8. Interested players and parents can email spitfirefieldhockey@comcast.net for more information or call Dona DeZube at (301) 490-9997.

Tournament at Garrison Forest
The Maryland Club Field Hockey Summer Challenge is on June 12 at Garrison Forest School. This is a 7v7 tournament on the school’s turf fields, with pools for U14, U16 and U19. Four game minimum, entry fee is $350 per team. E-mail TraciDavis@gfs.org for more details. Entry form here.

Coaching Accreditation Course
USA Field Hockey is holding a Level I coaching accreditation course in Cooksville (Howard County) at the Glenwood Community Center on June 18. The course is from 9 am to 4 pm. All participants receive a Level I participation certificate from USA Field Hockey. Level I Accreditation is valid for two years. Coaches are expected to be actively coaching during their accreditation tenure. Participants may be recommended to a Level II course. All Level I coaches must have active USA Field Hockey memberships to maintain their status. More details, including the address on the USAFH site. Or email michelle@jordanz.net

Shooter Camp
At the end of July, there’ll be a goalie/shooter camp at the Soccerdome in Landover. Put on by the Hockey Factory Shop organization, prospective campers are advised in a flyer that there will be “Lots of goalies to shoot at.” The camp features coaches Jesse Larson, JJ Wellings and Andrew Zayac and aims to teach scorers technique, hitting power and accuracy, one-on-one skills with defender and a goalie, dribbling and tactical awareness. The camp is three days (July 29, 30 and 31) between 8 am and 5 pm. See flyer for details.

Star Camp
Star Field Hockey Camp returns for two weeks in June on the turf at St. Andrew’s School in Potomac (directly next to Hoover Middle School) and one week in July at Georgetown Visitation in Georgetown. Go to the camp website and follow the links to sign up and pay or call (301) 530-5472. The 2011 programs are:

Junior Camp at St. Andrew’s – June 20-24
Rising 4th-9th graders
9 am – Noon only ($250)

Preseason Prep Camp at St. Andrew’s – June 27-July 1
Rising 8th graders and up
Your choice of 9 am-3:30 pm ($350), 9 am-Noon ($250), or 1 pm-3:30 pm ($150)

Preseason Prep Camp at Georgetown Visitation – July 11-15
Rising 8th graders and up
12:30 pm-3:30 pm ($250)

The NITs are over, the NCAA basketball tournaments are running full blast and hockey thoughts are turning to turf and outside. But if you need just one more dose of indoor hockey, check out the Brooklyn All-Stars tournament at Champions Field House near Rockville this weekend.

The tournament features men’s and women’s teams and runs today (Saturday) and tomorrow. The DC Dragons have several teams in both divisions. Games consist of two 20-minute periods.

Competition runs until 6:30 pm today, starting up again at 8 am on Sunday, with crossovers beginning at 11:45 am and finishing around 5 pm. Download the schedule or click on the image at right for full details.

Map to Champions Field House is here. Parking at the field house is extremely limited. Do not attempt to park at the nearby ice rink or Rockville Sportsplex, as those businesses aggressively protect their parking with tow trucks.

Instead, park at the warehouse building just down the hill (on the left as you drive up Southlawn Court).