Bonita Field Hockey Players Speak Softly (Not) and Carry Big Sticks

The second biggest participatory sport in the world isn’t football, basketball or baseball. It’s field hockey — and Bonita is only one of a handful of high schools to offer the sport, thanks in part to their new coach Janet Wong and roughly 35 varsity and junior varsity players who love running up and down a 100-by-60-yard field carrying big sticks (usually about 36 to 38 inches long).

When Wong was playing four years at San Dimas in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, she came out because she heard the team needed players.

“Once I tried it, I loved it,” said the coach.

Times, of course, have changed, and Wong faced a “good” problem in that field hockey try-outs attracted more players than the two Bonita teams could accommodate, so she had to cut players at the end of the week-long two-a-days, better known as “Hell Week.”

Still, it’s a little hard to figure out what the attraction is. Players end up running two to three miles a game, they have to wear mouth guards and shin guards and other encumbrances and they often get thwacked in the ankle with the ball,  a hard spherical core sheathed in plastic.

“Once you play it, you’ll love it,” insisted Wong, in her first year of coaching at Bonita.

Slowly, as the season approaches (next Thursday they face off against Marina in an away-game), Wong is getting her girls to believe her in her coaching methods – not always an easy thing, especially for seniors who have played for another coach.

“I have to say that it’s been a lit bit of a challenge hearing some of the players say, ‘That’s not the way we used to do it,’” Wong said.

“We’re going to move forward, we’re not going to look back,” said Wong, who, at 46, looks at least 10 years younger. “I’m very much into structure and discipline. If you do A,B,C, then D,E,F is going to happen.”

The new coach doesn’t have many rules, but the few she has she expects to be followed.

For example, any team member who missed Hell Week automatically doesn’t start the first three games of the season. Skip a practice without an explained and accepted excuse, and you don’t play the next game. Even if you have an excuse, you have to bring in the equipment at the end of the next practice. Forget a piece of required gear, and you don’t play.

“Even if I have to keep my best player out, rules are rules,” Wong said. “You have to apply them evenly or not at all. It’s the same for everybody. That’s how I was brought up and how I raise my family. My feeling is that’s what will make us a team.”

On talent alone, Wong has a solid team. Early in the season, players to watch are senior goalie Laura Simmons, forward Selena Acosta and mid-fielder Allison Miranda. An up-and-comer is Danielle Frescas, a sophomore mid-fielder and defensive specialist.

Wong has already pulled up a couple of JV players as well to round out the varsity. They are forward Jenna Cartwright, defender Victoria Samuelson and Breanna Hebert.

Varsity captains, which the players selected, are Kailey Diebold and Megan Lambrecht. Junior varsity captains are Katrina Beltran and Gisele Rodriguez.

Last week, the varsity lost 2-1 in an alumni game scrimmage. Despite the loss, Wong liked her girls’ competiveness, even if they were roughed up a bit by the older players.

“They lost, but they did well,” Wong said. “I was very proud of them, but I asked them after the game to promise me that they’ll never be intimidated again. We have the talent and the goods, we just have to believe. They’re learning that 90% of any sport is mental.”

One player she didn’t know was going to make the junior varsity was her daughter Taylor Wong, a junior. When some of her friends learned that her mom was the head coach, they told Taylor they’d join her and try out, thinking they had an automatic “in.”

“Taylor told them, ‘You don’t know my mom,’” Wong said. As it turns out, JV coach Kristen Kennedy, who played field hockey at Bonita four years ago, put her on the squad, based on merit, not on any coaching ties. By making the team, Taylor becomes a fourth-generation field hockey player, following her mother, grandmother and great grandmother as players. An aunt also played.

The varsity and junior varsity teams, which travel together, can expect to log lots of freeway miles this fall because Bonita and Glendora are the only local area high school teams, meaning they have long road trips to Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and other Orange County hot spots.

Despite the travel, field hockey offers players fantastic opportunities in the form of scholarships, which Wong believes some of her players can obtain with continued hard work and development. She added that the skill levels of today’s players have vastly improved since she took up the sport, but the maturity level of the players hasn’t improved accordingly. “They’re still teenage girls,” Wong said.

Maybe the team’s new no-nonsense rules and dedication to discipline will bring a new era of field hockey to Bonita. The puck (ball) drops next Thursday.

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Schedule and Rosters provided by Super Team Parent — Judy Barron

Preseason – Varsity Games at 3:15, JV – around 4:30 pm

 

September 7th – Bonita at Marina High School

September 9th – Huntington Beach at Bonita

September 14th – Newport at Bonita

September 16th – Bonita at Westminister

September 21st – Edison at Bonita

September 23rd – Bonita at Fountain Valley

September 28th – Bonita at Chaminade

September 30th – Glendora at Bonita

 

October 5th – Louisville at Bonita

October 7th – Bonita – Bye (practice only)

October 14th – Chaminade at Bonita

October 19th – Bonita at Glendora

October 21st – Bonita at Louisville

*October 23rd – Saturday game at Harvard.

JV @1:30, Varsity @ 3:00

October 26th – Bonita – Bye (practice only)

October 28th – Harvard at Bonita

 

Varsity Field Hockey – Coached by Janet Wong

Acosta, Selena   

Barron, Tori      

Borjon, Betty      

Diebold, Kailey  

Ford, Lauren  

Frescas, Danielle  

Gugilelmo, Desiree  

Johnson, Sydney  

Lambrecht, Megan  

McIntyre, Kassidy  

McWilliams, Shelby  

Miranda, Allison  

Simmons, Laura  

Ziolkowski, Alison  

Cartwright, Jenna

Hebert, Breanna

Samuelson, Victoria

 Junior Varsity – Coached by Kristen Kennedy and Joe San Nicholas

Katrina Beltran

Hayley Blockinger

Bailey Boardman

Kelsea Cadena

Cassidy Colwell

Julia Giannotti

Maya Gonzales

Kati Lizarraga

Shelby Loughman

Britni Murfett

Rhys Northup

Gisele Rodriguez

Jennifer Rodriguez

Amanda Sanchez

Holly Senebandith

Jill Tolar

Mia Williams

Taylor Wong