Field Hockey is Taking Off in California and with SportsForce

SportsForce began coverage of a new sport this week: Field Hockey. We can’t deny the popularity of this sport and want to offer our athletes and audience all access. We recently covered the Scripps Ranch vs. Cathedral Catholic, check out the highlights below.

Though Field Hockey is now high on the SportsForce radar, there are still limited opportunities for Division I play in our home state of California. The North County Times recently covered the lack of opportunities and the start up Division I program at UC Davis. The program has in-state athletes, and more specifically, athletes from San Diego and North County flocking to it.

The North County Times writes:

“…when Vianney Campos was named head coach and put in charge of starting a program at UC Davis, there was no doubt about her first recruiting stop.

‘I played at Eastlake, so I knew where to go to get players,’ Campos said.

When the recruiting process was over, Campos had 27 players for her first-year program —- 15 from San Diego, including 11 from North County.”

The article explains the increased level of play on the West Coast in recent years and in increase in talent,

“Since 2002, 72 field hockey players from North County high schools have gone on to play in college.

‘There are so many more opportunities now than when we all played a decade ago,’ said Kelli Gannon, now the head coach at San Pasqual. ‘When we played, you had to go east if you wanted to play collegiately.’

‘The West Coast teams have become very competitive over the last few years, and that’s good for the West Coast kids.'”

The creation of UC Davis’s program brings the number of Division I field hockey programs to four in the state. Though as the NC Times reports, there are other level of opportunities in the state,

“Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, USC and UC San Diego have club programs. Cal Poly is said to be considering adding field hockey to its varsity roster.”

You can read the full article here.