Maryland Field Hockey Deserves More Attention
Coach Missy Meharg’s Maryland field hockey team (with five All-Americans) that made it to the NCAA tournament last month before losing to Duke compiled a 22-2 record, including a tenth conference title and 25th NCAA appearance.
The team that has been one of the most successful since the NCAA began offering field hockey as a sanctioned sport in 1981 certainly sets a standard for other Terrapin teams to match.
But why didn’t we camp out before we played and defeated Duke for the ACC championship? Or why weren’t we chanting in the stands?
I took matters into my own hands and sent out a survey to Maryland students. I had a brief idea of why student attendance isn’t as high as football or basketball, and I received a range of comments.
Of the 52 survey respondents, 67 percent said basketball was their favorite sport to watch at Maryland, while 65 percent said basketball games were the ones they attended the most. Football came in second, with 15 percent of students saying it was their favorite sport to watch, and 22 percent being loyal attendees compared to other Maryland sports.
Just one person answered field hockey for both.
Despite most survey respondents — 77 percent — knowing about the team’s success, 77 percent of students have never attended a single game.
This is because of a range of reasons: People not growing up watching the sport, lack of publicity by the University and general media, few televised games and a perceived lack of popularity (field hockey) on the national level.
This comes as no surprise. It is one of the lesser-celebrated sports in the media nationally. But what respondents don’t know is that similar to soccer, internationally, field hockey is the third most popular sport, but this viewership has not made it’s way to the United States.
Sina Taghizadehmoghadam, senior geographic information science major, said the lack of popularity in the United States plays a large factor in student attendance because it’s hard to relate to a sport that many students have not played.
“It’s a sport that requires expensive equipment to play, so many people don’t grow up playing it recreationally,” he said. He also noted the lack of a professional league in the United States.
Students like senior journalism major Kirsten Petersen said the athletic department focuses it’s efforts on publicizing football and basketball, adding incentives like free T–shirts or raffles might help boost student attendance.
“Maybe basketball and football are more heavily promoted because they need a strong student turn out to boost team morale,” she said.
But some unsettling anonymous survey responses fell along the lines of “because it’s a women’s sport.”
It is a sad truth that the average sports fan pays more attention to men’s sports. There’s a need for a certain level of physicality and aggressiveness in popular sports, and some believe women lack these aspects.
But Petersen, who attended a field hockey game, was surprised at the level of physicality.
“It was more fun than I expected,” she said. “The girls are so aggressive on the field and I was blown away by their intensity and teamwork.”
And while even playing the game is generally limited to females in the U.S., men are less likely to relate to the sport like they do to women’s basketball.
But Women Studies 101 aside, the way I see it is that Maryland students should support all the sports. On his ESPN radio show, Maryland alumnus Scott Van Pelt criticized students over a half-empty student section at the football team’s home game against Virginia. Although he was referring to our 5-1 football team at the time, I think he put it perfectly:
“You have the rest of your life to be in a big fat hurry, to be jaded about stuff. But when you’re young, just slow down. Enjoy it.”
For all sports.
