After this sojourn, they are all international athletes, world travelers, and Lafayette ambassadors. They have embraced a different culture, touched children, experienced elephants, rhinos, zebras and springboks in their native habitats. They have seen historical sites and sampled a new geography. It was a trip to remember while sharpening their hockey skills and bonded closer as a team.
Their last visit was a view of Capetown as they saw it on the first days, high from a mountaintop. It will be an enduring memory which can recalled at reunions of the future.
Their next gathering as team will be in less than 60 days. Only they will have added to their numbers with a new incoming class. On August the 14th they will be visiting Monmouth for their first preseason game and we can all witness for ourselves the results of the trip.
These trips are designed so that every field hockey player at Lafayette gets to have a similar experience. This coming season, the team will be playing for the Patriot League championship and to participate in the national tournament. The new players will be tested as never before, as the skill, speed and strength of their opponents and teammates will be more than they have ever experienced in their athletic careers to date. The league is improving every year, and as our veteran players know, every game must be contested as a key game!
Lafayette will put one of its most experienced teams on the turf this season and I am looking forward to an improved team chemistry. They are well led by three great captains who will motivate our Leopards to play their best. The sixty days will go by fast and in the meantime I will review the rest of the league and perhaps divert from time to time on other subjects including the US World Cup team.
So I will alert most you as I write in the near future. I can’t wait for the new season. I am sure our Field Hockey Leopards are already thinking of it as well, as they fly home today. Welcome back ladies!!!
Lafayette College Field Hockey 