All About Field Hockey

Hello. I'm Donna Stephenson, also know as Coach Steve to area field hockey players. It’s often confusing for parents and players when they show up to one of our programs for the first time because, of course, they assume Coach Steve is a man. Instead they find a pint-sized coach, all five feet of me. What I don’t have in size I try to make up in personality. Sometimes I’m successful at that. 

By the way, "Steve" is short for "Stephenson"—a player pinned that on me during my first year coaching. Recently, my younger players started calling me Coach Stevie, which I thought was really cute.

So how did I get here on PR Patch and what am I doing with a blog? PR Patch Editor Cindy Micco invited me to blog after seeing my video promoting a winter indoor field hockey program. I enjoy writing and I love field hockey so what else is there to do with my free time? I might as well give this a shot, and hey, I can now check off “write a blog” from my bucket list.

For my first posting, I would like to provide a backdrop on our philosophy for youth field hockey. Fundamentally we believe that girls just want to have fun (remember that song by Cyndi Lauper?). No seriously, kids are kids, and kids want to have fun at their activities.

We believe that if girls have fun at field hockey then they will want to continue playing field hockey. Simple as that. We also like to keep the commit low at the youth level because we realize that kids are involved in multiple activities, and when you have a family with multiple kids in multiple activities, what you get is a mom in a mini-van or SUV logging 100 miles a week on the Red Belt and other roads in Pine-Richland—I happen to fit that profile. It’s important to us to offer both kid-friendly and family-friendly programs.

Please visit http://www.prfieldhockey.com/youth/ to learn more about our youth field hockey opportunities.

Back to that video, you can check it out at http://pine-richland.patch.com/events/pine-richland-field-hockey-winter-.... I had fun creating this video on my Mac. Let me know what you think. Our winter indoor field hockey program begins on Tuesday, January 8th. You still have time to register at http://www.pryc.org. Please contact me at coachsteve@prfieldhockey.com if you have any questions.

I am really excited to blog about my passion for field hockey. Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on rules, collegiate careers of former PRFH players, equipment, USA Field Hockey Olympic development, PRFH season this fall, etc. So much field hockey to blog about...

Forever FH,
Coach Steve

Download the movie