A SNAIL'S EYE VIEW OF THE 2001 DOMESTIC TOUR

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

The endless road for the U.S. women's national field hockey team to achieve prominence in the women's sports revolution took a turn through domestic soil in 2001.

For years, we had been hoping for a tour of some sort to bring the game closer to the people. When the tour was announced, it was a chance not only to take a much needed week off from work, but to get a good look at Team USA in action, rather than the annual Eagles HC scrimmage at "A"-Camp that had taken place in the mid-1990s.

A quick look at the schedule gave the indication that an entire period between Oct. 11 and Oct. 20 would be solely devoted to the cause of women's athletics. And it got quite dizzying, since there was more to the period than just field hockey:

Oct. 11, Washington, D.C. -- Took part in a charity pool tournament with members of a soccer supporters' group. Met Chamique Holdsclaw, the fine forward/guard for the Washington Mystics WNBA basketball team, who is one of the most down-to-earth people you could ever hope to meet.

But the highlight came later in the evening, when Briana Scurry, goalkeeper for the U.S. women's 1999 World Cup soccer team, stopped in. When I told her where I was going the next day, she asked me to give her best to her friend and fellow University of Massachusetts alumna, Tara Jelley.

Jelley, forward for the U.S. field hockey team, had any number of key USA goals the past three years.

Oct. 12, somewhere between Danbury and Hartford, Conn. -- As the reports of an anthrax infestation have many in New York City leaving town for the weekend, leaf-peeping tourists are also taking to the highways. The result is a traffic jam that seems to cry out for the four-lane interstates customary in Maryland.

On anticipating the first match the next afternoon, thoughts creeped in, especially when it came to the way the matches were being held on the heels of a major terrorist attack on American soil. Would we be safe? Would the competition be fierce?

Better yet, could we get the necessary results? And, will people come?

Oct. 13, Chestnut Hill, Mass. -- Sunny and warm, my foot.

A very gray and very cold day met some 2,000 fans for the first of four Test matches between the United States and South Africa.

Once the African champions took the Alumni Stadium pitch, I made sure to take mental notes of some of the players and their tendencies. Susan Wessels: shooter. Marcia Marescia: just 18 years old. Lindsey Carlisle: skills. Pietie Coetzee: the kid who scored a bunch of goals in a national team qualifier in Zimbabwe some years ago. And a big kid.

After the U.S. players threw T-shirts into the stands (I caught one from the hands of Melanie Meerschwam), I relayed a message from Briana Scurry the previous evening to Tara Jelley. She gave a broad grin.

And then, the game was on. The pace of the game started out fast and got even faster. Both teams got into short passing modes, trying to outfox the opponent rather than overpowering.

The Americans, however, began falling into a pattern that would be the team's hallmark for the tour: absorb a lot of defensive pressure, then counterattack. In essence the U.S. conceded the advantage of possession time to the South Africans.

But another pattern developed that first game: the presence of U.S. goalkeeper Peggy Storrar. In the first half, she made a thigh-high save from a logged position that was top-class. She made other stops on chipped shots and flicks that drew approval from the high-school teams in attendance.

After 70 minutes, the game was drawn at 0-0. However, a late defensive save on the part of the Americans' Kate Barber proved costly, as she had shattered a bone in her hand, necessitating the insertion of a pin to aid in healing.

With the USA down one player in the tour (Tracey Larson having suffered a similar injury the previous week), the bench was further shortened.

Oct. 14, Storrs, Conn. -- It was kind of appropriate that one of the first people I talked to at the game site was Nancy Cole, the architect of the Hun Ya-Ha Sisterhood of players at Centereach (N.Y.).

That is because, when the teams were announced, the last player introduced was Cole's finest player, Team USA captain Tracey Fuchs. On that day, she earned her 202nd cap for the national team.

The game turned out to be just as breathtaking as the introduction. The Americans, down 2-0 at the half-hour, showed incredible resilience throughout the rest of regulation. Carla Tagliente scored twice and Mimi Smith once to tie the game going into the last five minutes.

Kristen McCann, late of the University of North Carolina, had a chance to win the game but rang a bullet off the left post. That begging chance would prove to be costly; South Africa's Carina Van Zijl stubbed a shot from within a goalmouth scramble that resulted in a goal with less than 10 seconds remaining. The final horn sounded just as the players were headed for the center spot (the clock is not stopped for goals in Test matches).

The thought in my head as I drove back across the Tappan Zee Bridge was about the lack of depth, given the fact that the U.S. only had two field players and a goalkeeper on the subs' bench.

Then again, given the rules about declaring a roster before a tournament, this would be as good a simulation as any. The rest of the tour would yield answers.

Oct. 15, New York, N.Y. -- The day was spent at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as the Women's Sports Foundation kicked off a day of festivities, to culminate in the Salute to Women In Sports dinner that night.

Some 80 women from dozens of sports and endeavors crowded the room. Many I had already met, like lacrosse mavens Jen Adams and Crista Samaras, WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie, and soccer's Tiffeny Milbrett. I also got to shake the hand of Billie Jean King, the pioneer who started the WTA Tour as well as the Women's Sports Foundation. I showed her the pictures of my nieces, Ana and Maria, and told her they were my motivations for starting this website.

But in the midst of all the gladhanding, there was also work to be done. My mind, looking for story angles, was working overtime until Michelle Akers, the legendary soccer player, took the stage to say a few words about her receiving the Wilma Rudolph award for courage.

The moment she said, "It is about this time that I had wanted to announce my retirement," it struck me as one of those momentous events coming out of an innocuous event, like the time George Marshall announced a rebuilding plan for Europe while delivering the commencement address at Harvard.

I had expected a rush of writers to call editors for stories, but since there were tight controls on media access to the WSF festivities, the news of her retirement got shockingly little play.

I eventually scored an interview with Melissa Moore, a woman who has been involved with South Carolina field hockey for some 30 years, and who has opinions about field hockey in the Deep South.

I had wanted to contact either The Brearley School or The Chapin School to start work on a Sept. 11 story on the field hockey teams of New York City, Washington, and Arlington, Va., but I was getting tired from all of the traveling. Back home to see the nieces.

Oct. 16, Lawrence, N.J. -- Didn't make Game Three of the Test series with South Africa; another 10 hours fighting tractor-trailers was not exactly my idea of spending a day.

Instead, I dropped by a scholastic field hockey game, as I am wont to do. Got an interview with a player who underwent a delicate brain operation at the age of 9, talked with both coaches about how their season was going, then ran into an alum-turned-assistant who I hadn't seen in about eight years.

Word came late in the evening: the U.S. lost 3-0 to South Africa, and again faltered in the closing minute, conceding a late goal. I went to bed a little depressed. Thought vacations were for rest.

Oct. 20, Virginia Beach, Va. -- After working on Friday, I drove down early Saturday morning on the long ribbons of road known as I-95 and I-64. But about 10 miles from Williamsburg, everything stopped.

A bottle of lemon-laced Diet Coke, being testmarketed in some areas before national distribution, became a necessary guide as the traffic creeped like sand in a very narrow hourglass called the Williamsburg Interchange.

Before the U.S. game, I dropped by the American field hockey cathedral known as Foreman Field. The parabolic grandstands in the midst of Old Dominion University were hosting a game between host ODU and James Madison.

Once the halftime whistle blew with ODU up 2-1, I struck out for the U.S. Training Center.

The training center is located in a wide pasture near a soccer-specific stadium and a state-of-the-art outdoor entertainment theater.

Fans came out in the balmy 78-degree weather. It was a perfect day for hockey.

The U.S. fans were silenced only a few minutes as, for the third successive match, South Africa took the early lead, stretching it to 2-0 by the halftime horn.

But Jill Reeve brought the Americans back to 2-1, only to see Coetzee stroke on the hour to give the Springboks a 3-1 lead. Tagliente brought the score to 3-2, and the frenzied U.S. fans were prepared for a miracle.

However, the last-minute karma (one broken hand, two 70th-minute goals) was too much for the U.S. to overcome. The Stars and Stripes yielded not one, but two goals in the final minutes to turn a winnable game into a 5-2 sendoff.

There was time for reflection on the way back to The Vo. We had seen superb, often heroic performances by Storrar, Tagliente, the un-retired Antoinette Lucas, Fuchs, and left back Katie Kauffman.

But the lack of substitutes and available players (heck, a third of the future national team was participating in the UNC-Maryland game a few hundred miles away) made this first U.S. tour since the 1996 Olympics a difficult one.

The Americans did the best possible job of marketing themselves, in the tradition of the U.S. women's soccer team. They played dramatic, crowd-pleasing hockey. They also took the time to sign autographs for anyone who wanted, threw autographed T-shirts into the stands, and held a contest for the loudest high school team in attendance -- winner to get a photo taken with the U.S. team.

But the best possible marketing, of course, is winning. Most of the U.S. players are used to winning, having come from collegiate programs like Maryland, North Carolina, Old Dominion, and Princeton. This losing streak on home soil hurts -- not only the players, but a loud and loyal group of supporters.

And, as a fan, it made the drive back to the Beltway feel longer, even though there was little traffic to block the way.

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