Last season the Hamburg Area High School’s field hockey team put in the work from preseason to practices and it paid off. The team finished the season with a county game against Oley Valley, and although they lost, the Hamburg field hockey team proved that they are raising the intensity. This season the team worked on conditioning and learned different plays in order to improve their talent on the field. This was shown when the team recently played Governor Mifflin, and after losing 9-0 to Mifflin last season, they recovered by going into overtime 2-2. The Hamburg field hockey team hopes to be a difficult competitor this season and leave a county game with a win. 

     To see what they plan on bringing to the field this season, we interviewed some current players about the improvement they noticed. “There’s a lot of improvement on the team all around, stick skills, defense, and improving as a team.” says Breanna Lillington, a defender on the field hockey team. The team picked up on new defensive strategies this season to further prevent goals for the other team. These strategies have proven effective, so the team hopes to flawlessly execute them in a game. The team’s defensive skills and abilities being improved will surely make this season more intense.

     “I think the team’s conditioning and stick skills have improved, making us a stronger team,” said Summer Bonser, another defender on the team. The team’s motto for this season is “don’t give up”, which is said in a majority of the team’s conditioning to uplift the rest of the team. Whether they are pushing teammates to keep running rather than walking or to give them a boost to complete one last push up, this motto helps the team motivate each other. The conditioning has become more difficult and common in their practices, to keep the team in shape and last quarters in their games. “The team’s improvement is phenomenal,” said Ella Troxell, a forward. Overall, the team notices that their hard work and effort they put into practices is helping them in the field and in plays.