Field hockey has been a sport at Lamar for over five years and it is still not a UIL sport at school. Although some of the reasoning is understandable, we still aren’t able to use the back fields for home games or practices- and this is why we should.

Whenever I tell people I play field hockey, it’s always the same questions that get asked.“How do you play?” or “what even is that?” I end up telling them that it’s almost a combination of soccer and lacrosse and that field hockey just has a candy cane-looking stick. 

Field hockey,while very popular up North, is less popular in the Southern States.This unpopularity has led to less schools actually having it as an option. Although a lot of private schools around the Houston area have field hockey as a UIL sport the public schools have not followed suit. Along with Memorial High School, Lamar is the only other public school that has field hockey as an option at all.

Although we get recognition from the school, we are still a club sport. This is a problem because we don’t get equal access to the fields or other privileges that the other sports teams do. 

Last year, we practiced at an indoor field which was nice but an inconvenience. We had to be there by five and with the rush hour traffic, along with school ending at 4:10, there was always a rush to get there on time. No coach wants the majority of their team to be late to practices but unfortunately that’s what ours had to deal with. 

This year, we weren’t able to get spots at the indoor field, so we ended up having to practice on the front lawn of our school.Practicing right in front of the school with the crowded streets of Westheimer watching is very unpleasant. Hearing this news at the beginning of the season absolutely devastated us. No one wants to practice in front of random students, especially with random people driving by and honking at us, shouting “I LOVE FIELD HOCKEY.” 

In addition to the social issues, we also play on the long, thick grass that covers the front of Lamar. This grass is filled with ant piles and students’ litter. We had to ask one of our player’s family members to mow the lawn for us so we could have a decent surface. Even with the trim, which is now a visible square, it still has lumps and holes that always suck in the ball, making it more stressful when we are trying to practice.

Everyone knows there are two fields in the back of the school. Football uses the big field for their practice but as far as we know, no one uses the second field when we practice, so why can’t we use it? The grass on that field is cut super short and would be perfect for our practices. Practicing on turf is always ideal but we can take what we can get.

Overall, we just want a decent space to practice and now, the front lawn of our dear school does not make the cut. Becoming a UIL sport would be great because of the privileges that would come with it. For now, we get to have fun hitting a ball with a stick while the students waiting to get picked up by their parents or staying for after school activities watch us for entertainment.