Stand within hearing range of Homewood Field during field hockey practice and your ear will likely catch every imaginable quote from a slew of Will Ferrell movies. Sophomore forward Katie Wong explains that whenever someone messes up a drill, the entire team chants in unison, 88 la Molly Shannon in the 1999 film Superstar, "You're horrible."
Keep listening and you might hear a reference from the team favorite, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, during running drills. Wong said Ferrell's "It's either yogging or jogging" line remains a common utterance on the practice field.
The Blue Jays are great at quoting Will Ferrell, but they're pretty good at field hockey too. This past Monday at Homewood Field, the Jays downed Frostburg State 6-0 on goals from Wong and five others. The win came a day after Hopkins lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to SUNY Cortland, in which the Red Dragons took a lead with less than ten minutes to play.
"Every loss feels bad. The locker room was real quiet after the [SUNY Cortland] game. We didn't play great on defense, as we looked real disorganized out there," Wong said. "But we got
rid of the bad feelings the next day and it felt great to play a solid defensive game."
The improved defense paved the way for a Blue Jay offensive takeover. Sophomore forward Emily Miller has been the biggest surprise for the Hopkins offense, notching a career-high eight points in two games. Miller's phenomenal efforts have not gone unnoticed as she was awarded the Centennial Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday, Sept. 5. During the SUNY Cortland game, Miller single-handedly carried the team, scoring once and assisting the three other goals the Jays scored that evening. Shockingly enough, her eight points this season already match her total from last year.
Other than enjoying the standout performance of her friend Miller, Wong said that she
likes the increased communication heard on the field during defensive stands, which permits the Jays to create more stops and interceptions.
"We talk a lot more and we don't hesitate to be critical to one another," she said. "We all want the same thing and I appreciate being critiqued because my teammates are only helping me out. We want the best for each other."
Wong credits the team's ten-day tour of Europe for creating a greater bond among the returning players, which facilitated the necessary on-field communication. The 16-woman roster played friendly matches against top club teams in Vienna, Prague and other central European locations.
"The top notch competition enabled us to work on creating crisper passing patterns and faster ball movement, which should benefit us when we hit good competition in the regular and post seasons," Wong said.
In addition to improving bonds on the field, Wong said that post-match barbeques and their excursions into Vienna and Prague remained trip highlights.
"After playing a match, we would have a cookout with the other team, which made for a good experience," she said. "But of course, the shopping was easily the best part, along with touring the city and the museums. We took way too many photos and of course there were plenty of movies to watch."
Wong said that the team's collective love for movies flourished during late night hotel room screenings. She explained how senior Jamie Zubrow recently began hosting team parties for every new episode of HBO's Entourage. "A lot of the girls get hyped up for Entourage, but I don't see what's so great about it."
Hopefully the team can come together and be as close as the entourage they watch on TV.
