Photos by JENNA HICKEY
Text by KYLIE MIES and AANYA KUMAR
LEAVING THEIR LEGACY BEHIND THE JOURNEY OF FIELD HOCKEY TRAILBLAZERS
D
RIBBLING IT WITH her field hockey stick, Palo Alto High School senior Alexa Gwyn darts down the field to the opposing team’s goal. The video shows her teammates following and supporting her, working in tandem after years of playing together. She takes a deep breath, looks at the opposing team’s goalie and shoots, scoring the point. Along with fellow seniors Hallie Faust, Madeline Lohse and Dasha Vartanova, Gwyn began playing field hockey for Paly during the girl’s field hockey team’s inaugural season in 2019. When Gwyn moved from Australia in middle school, she was determined to continue playing her favorite sport. “I’ve been playing field hockey since third grade,” Gwyn said. “So when my
mom said that we might be moving to “I started a petition, and we got a America, I told her that I would move only bunch of people to sign it,” Gwyn said. if there was field hockey because I loved it.” “And then I started a club, and we got the Although there were club teams that A.D. [Athletic Director] involved.” Gwyn could join when Soon an opporshe first moved, Paly It was a relief to learn tunity arose to indid not have a girl’s a new girl’s alongside others rather troduce field hockey team. sport. With many costs for a than feel like I had to “Title nine states coach, equipment and that if you introduce catch up to everyone uniforms, the process just a boy’s sport, you to establish a team was else.” must also introduce — HALLIE FAUST, senior a girl sport,” Gwyn complicated. However, the Athletic Departsaid. “When boy’s ment told her that they would consider volleyball was added, they needed anothher proposal if she could find students who er girl sport. And so we got to instate field were interested. hockey.” Gwyn was not intimidated by the challenge and began the process of creating Starting new a team her sophomore year. During the team’s first season, few players had experience in the sport. However, senior Hallie Faust says that the lack of prior exposure made it easier to enjoy being a part of the team. “Without so many high expectations and so much pressure and competition, the whole sport was much more enjoyable,” Faust said. “It was a relief to learn alongside others rather than feel like I had to catch up to everyone else.” Like Faust, senior Madeline Lohse said she believes the lack of experience was beneficial in uniting the team during their first
“
HUDDLE UP — The Paly Girls’ Field Hockey team meets before their big game against Valley ChristianHigh School. Paly won, 5-0. “It’s just so awesome to look back at our first year and think about how we took our record of losing almost every game and basically inverted it,” senior Hallie Faust said.
28 JUNE 2021
