TOP OF THE CIRCLE LAUNCHED WITH A PURPOSE IN MIND

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

Women's participation in big-time athletics have undergone huge changes in the United States over the past four to five years.

In individual sports, professional athletes like Nancy Lopez and Chris Evert have been known worldwide for their prowess, and have attained something approaching celebrity status.

Worldwide, women have more chances to participate in events in which there was little or no women's participation not so long ago. More and more women enter discus and pole vault competitions at track meets. Women compete in freestyle wrestling and weightlifting. Women's boxing has had huge leaps in participation thanks to television.

In terms of American professional team sports, there was a boom in the late 1990s. Two women's basketball leagues, one women's soccer league, and a fastpitch softball league were formed, with another women's soccer league, at least one baseball league, and two ice hockey leagues were in the works.

Granted, not everything worked out. The American Basketball League folded in its third season, and funding for the pro ice hockey leagues and for the National Soccer Alliance failed to come together. And in women's baseball -- despite the remarkable success of Ila Borders -- Coors withdrew support from the Colorado Silver Bullets, the Mid-Atlantic Pride folded, and you don't hear much about the Mediterranian Baseball League.

Despite the setbacks, American women have shown themselves as the best in the world in most team sports. The United States has won Olympic gold in women's basketball (Atlanta 1996), women's soccer (Atlanta 1996), softball (Atlanta 1996), and women's ice hockey (Nagano 1998). American women currently hold the world title in women's lacrosse (Japan 1997), the 1998 Solheim cup in golf, and took the 1997 Federation Cup of women's tennis.

However, the one activity which has been left behind is the one which holds the longest history and heritage among American women: field hockey.

It is an odd trend, given the fact that the sport's introduction to this country can be traced back to Day One. Despite the history and tradition which runs very deep in some part of the United States, the game is in ill health here.

Remarks about the game's "regional" appeal, the failure of the NCAA to televise the sport's Final Four, and the sometimes vicious politicking within the domestic scene reflects poorly in worldwide results. The United States women's national team failed to qualify for the 2000 Olympics and finished a lowly eighth in the 1998 World Cup, a big step down from its bronze medal performance of 1994. It was a result unbefitting a sport which had historically been the only athletic outlet considered "socially acceptable" in America for most of this century.

Worse than the result was the reception the tournament received. Perhaps overshadowed by the World Cup of men's soccer, held in France, field hockey's World Cup received virtually no coverage here and not much more in England, which gave the sport to the United States in the early 1900s.

There exists an untapped market for the sport, especially on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Passionate fans of the game abound, especially in central and southern New Jersey, Long Island, northern Connecticut, Maryland, the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia, and suburban Philadelphia.

Growing the sport beyond the crucible of the high-school game has been a problem, since few people in one region knows how the game is in other parts of the country.

This is what TopOfTheCircle.com hopes to accomplish. Tying together resources already available on the World Wide Web, the site hopes to get fans talking about what's true and good about the game from a national perspective.

Throughout our coverage of Eastern scholastic field hockey, we will attempt to build up the sport from the grass-roots level. Here's what this site is planning to post:

 

A weekly list of Top 25 Eastern high-school teams;

Top 100 senior college prospects, with honest assessments as to how they will do in college;

A list of "overlooked" players, those whose talent deserves a second look by top college programs;

Interviews with legends of the game;

A Corner of the Month;

Featurettes which go beyond the purvey of what the typical daily local newspaper can cover.

 

The offices of TopOfTheCircle.com has an evolving list of stories, concentrating on the high-school, collegiate, recreational, and national levels, which will be coming out over the next several months. Unlike many other publications, both in print and online, we let you see our story budget.

Occasionally, the website will also reprint pertinent articles on women's athletics and will publish an occasional sports media column. Updates to this site will be done on an "as needed" basis rather than every evening or every week at a set time. You are encouraged to keep checking back with us from time to time, and to send us electronic mail. Our address is topofthecircle@aol.com

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