University of Massachusets Athletics
UMass Has Right Recipe For Big Trip
August 25, 2006 | Field Hockey
Aug. 25, 2006
Things are cooking on the University of Massachusetts field hockey team, and the recipes will help pay for the season-opening trip to California.
With high hopes of their first winning season in five years, the Minutewomen begin the 2006 campaign at Stanford Saturday before playing at the University of California Sunday at Berkeley. They remain there for a contest against Pacific Tuesday.
And although Division I field hockey teams offer a certain number of athletic scholarships, such coast to coast journeys require extra funding. The Minutewomen are doing their part to raise the necessary capital with the publication of the Traditions Cookbook, filled with favorite recipes from players, parents, coaches, and alumni.
"It's in final production, and it's $30, one dollar for each year of the field hockey program," UMass head coach Patty Shea.
There has been a tremendous response from the field hockey alumni for the book, and the orders are paying the freight for a valuable early-season bonding trip for the current edition.
Oh, the players did have some other ideas to raise the money. Shea was quick to nix one of them.
"They wanted me to run cooking classes, but that would be work for me," she said.
Shea does come from family with a certain knack for quickly whipping up some good food.
"My mother's grandmother was a German baker with a family of 11, so she was used to feeding an army," she said. "We recently had to help my parents out of their house, and we found all kinds of cookbooks."
The Minutewomen, 8-13 last year (but 5-4 in their last nine games) play their first eight games on the road before returning home Sept.23 against UConn for the first game on the new Garber Field artificial surface.
Everything is not new at Garber, however. Some of the Minutewomen players, as well as graduate assistant coach Katelyn Woolfrey, were stung at practice in recent days by wasps that made the Garber press box their off-season home. An exterminator was called to take care of the problem.
Meanwhile, the Minutewomen plan to take care of business in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
"We've been in the A-10 finals the last two years; this year we need to win it," Shea said.
UMass has struggled since 2002, going 5-17 that season and 4-15 the next. The last two years have been somewhat better at 9-13 and 8-13, but nothing like the good old days that saw them reel off six straight A-10 crowns from 1996-2001.
"You can only say you're young and inexperienced for so long, and we're into three or four years of that," Shea said. "At some point it has to happen."
Making things happen is sophomore Erin Parker of South Deerfield, who was a standout at Frontier Regional School. Last year, she led the Minutewomen in scoring with five goals and four assists en route to the A-10 All-Rookie team.
"We had a strong spring season to build one, and we're definitely on an upward slope," Parker said. "In the spring, the graduating seniors are gone, and all you have is the returning players. It's a time to try new things, a time when it's okay to make mistakes."
Parker doesn't feel any pressure to increase her goals scored.
"I don't feel that pressure because I don't focus on the end result," said Parker, a terrific playmaker. "I look to make the best play I can. This year, I'm working on developing different shots, and mentally being able to see different options."
One key for UMass is the play of goalkeeper Becky Letourneau of Greenfield. Shea says she keeps getting better, in part because of being pushed by freshman Sarah Williams.
"It's good to start on the road," Parker said. "We have a nice new field to come home to, and I'd rather be at home the second half of the season because we're going to be better then."
