The new turf stadium at Bonita Vista High (BVH) was opened by the BVH girls’ field hockey team on Oct. 10, winning their game against Southwest High School (SOH) 4-0. Get to the Pointe (GTP) and cheerleaders were at the event along with Physical Education (P.E.) students and a ceremony with BVH Principal Lee Romero and Athletic Director Tyler Arciaga.

“The [administration] made sure there were people here to see the beginning of the game which I enjoyed,” Team Captain, midfielder and junior Kaelynn Conners said. “The P.E. classes came out. The cheerleaders were here to cheer for us for a little bit and even the dance team. I think that the administrators made it a big deal which was really important for us and meant a lot.” 

With a large audience in attendance, the team hopes this would encourage more people to try out in the future. Field hockey is a sport that’s all about teamwork, communication and hard work. They hope that people can see these values and that the sport is easy to learn, but most importantly, fun.

“I’d like to see us continue to make progress and win. I would also like to see more people come to our games and maybe have an interest in the sport and encourage them to try out next season, or want to continue to come to our games, which means a lot to us,” Conners said.

The team performed well alongside the additional support and energy from the crowd. Dominating possession and keeping the ball almost entirely on SOH’s side of the field with very few opportunities for SOH to counterattack. The team focused on playing more aggressively after a series of losing five games in a row In particular, they worked at getting 13 corners, in order to be more offensive and create more opportunities to score.

“I think today they capitalized on playing a little more offensively. We’ve had some very defensive games in our more recent past. We really want to focus on getting corners, scoring and working on our offense,” girl’s field hockey Coach Brianne Paxton said. 

Prior to the game, Romero announced that the person who scored the first goal would be commemorated with a certificate. The first goal on the new field was scored by left forward and sophomore Alexa Valenzuela with an assist from right forward and freshman Mackenzie Koeppen. Alexa received a certificate and balloons on Oct. 14 to honor the special achievement from the school.

“It’s really exciting for them [girl’s field hockey team], too.The school announcing the first goal would be remembered. I think it also gets them excited to be part of the sport and feeling like their peers finally get to watch them play,” Paxton said. 

The team has made the work and effort to play a more complete game in all aspects from the back to the front. Valenzuela made it clear the team is very focused on improving with each win and learning how to play to their own expectations with consistency especially on the defensive side of the ball, also noting what they did well on

“We did well on pushing the ball forward and moving upfield. Going forward, we want to keep winning, and have a stronger defense, which we plan on working on with each game,” Valenzuela said.

The team has improved much since the season began, in particular their communication between each other, which is crucial in team sports like field hockey. Communication is key to the development of the team’s game play, especially as the season progresses for the young team. 

“Moving forward, I’d like to see us have communication for the entire 60 minutes of the game, but also continue supporting each other starting from the backfield, midfield, all the way to the forward line. I think we can build off this momentum as we move off to the remaining parts of our season,” Paxton said.

While the team is focused on winning, Paxton focuses on continued improvement in the team and using every opportunity they have to get better. 

“They did really well connecting between midfield and forward line, supporting each other and communicating. I’d say today was the best I’ve seen them work together as a team; they were prepared both physically and mentally. Today the girls came in very focused and [prepared], and because of that they were successful,” Paxton said.

Paxton’s goal is to make the playoffs. For her, a lot of the improvement isn’t defined by winning or losing, but how they improve week to week. A success, she believes, is about the effort displayed and afterwards, being able to look back at their performance and be proud of their work.

“It would be nice to make it to the playoffs, but I would really like to seem them build off what we had done in the last week or so and to carry that into each game we can leave the field going ‘Hey, I played the best I could’ then that’s a success to me,” Paxton said.