Throughout high school I played for the highest rated field hockey club in the country, and let me tell you it was quite the experience. From the high intensity practices to the top tier coaches to the late night tournaments, I would never trade any of it for the world.

At club I learned that hard work truly does pay off, with each drill and sprint getting us closer and closer to National Qualifiers. Despite the fact that there was no guarantee of qualifying for the National Tournament, it was expected, and trust me there was no living it down if your team was one of the few that didn’t qualify. I know a lot of girls who didn’t last long at our club, which is understandable considering the style. The yelling and the critiques that were given aren’t for everyone, but for me I felt that I was learning from the best and it would benefit me as a player and a person.

Playing at club made me feel as though I could do anything, and although I didn’t play my senior year, it's something I think about almost everyday. I played year round there, with tournaments and training in the Fall, Winter, and Spring, and overheating during camps in the summer on the extremely hot turf.

Practices once a week for a few hours followed by two tournaments on the weekends was a lot of work, especially while balancing it with school. I learned how to make time work in my favor and I managed to keep focus on the task at hand.

My coaches for club always pushed us to do our very best and never to disappoint, which is something that I still value. If it isn’t your best work, then you might as well not even show it to anyone because everything that you do should be something that you are truly proud of.

There are a lot of girls who found the club to be intimidating and too intense, but for some reason it felt like a second home to me at times. No, I wasn’t on our highest team, but I still received the same intense training and coaching that the higher teams did. Nothing can compare to how rewarding it was to step out onto the field wearing that uniform knowing how much people wanted to play on my club team.

When I first tried out, I really didn’t think that I would make it. I had previously played for a less competitive team that everyone makes and I had never tried the high intensity programs, but somehow I found myself on this team and went to practice every Thursday. When Thursdays came around I would dread practice all day at school, but every week once I got to practice I would realize that despite the running and the difficult drills, there was no place I’d rather have been.

I didn’t go on to play field hockey in college, but the lessons I learned from the best club in the country will stick with me forever. Be proud of what you do, represent yourself well, respect your competition, expect the unexpected, and never give up. Playing club at this level shaped my confidence and determination throughout the next few years of my life and I truly believe that playing there helped me get to where I am today.

Being a student here at UD was something I had only dreamed of, and after training with this club team I felt like anything was within my reach if I put my best foot forward. Now here I am, 4 years later, a freshman at a great university with huge goals ahead of me. I never would have imagined I could be this determined without the persistence and training that I received at my club.

Of course I wasn’t the biggest fan of the full field sprints over and over after not qualifying for Nationals my junior year, but hey, such is life.