La Jolla field hockey enjoying success

By Phil Dailey

Staff writer

It’s been five years since La Jolla started its girls field hockey program, and this season, the team is starting finally to see progress. After beating University City last week at home 3-1, the Vikings improved to 8-3 on the season, which, according to head coach Paula Conway, is great news for the direction of the team which has never had a winning season.

“We’re having a winning season; we’re actually much improved from last year,” Conway said. “A year ago at this time we were right round .500.”

Overall, the team is 8-5-1, which included a 0-2-1 record this past weekend at a tournament at Serra High against all Division I teams.

There are a few reasons Conway thinks this season is going to end up much better than year’s past. For starters, the team has several players who are not totally new to field hockey. During the first few seasons of play, Conway would beg players to join her squad, sometimes taking players who were cut from other sports to take up her sport.

During tryouts this season, there were as many as 50 girls who wanted to give field hockey a shot. It was the first time Conway had to make cuts.

A core group that includes Annabel Linney, Onezia Berotte, Leslie Timms and Kenzie Kepper leads this year’s team.

“A lot of them played last year in the same position so they are more apt to be stronger players,” Conway said. “We’re starting to learn to score and win games and compete more.

With league play still a week away, Conway and her team have an obtainable goal, which is to get a higher seed in the CIF playoffs than last year, which was 12th (out of 12).

This season the team would like to get one or two CIF wins and even host a game.

“We’re really looking forward to league play and get that going,” Conway said.

This week the team plays Point Loma and Scripps Ranch.