Windsor
Windsor has already made the reinstatement official through the Vermont Principals Association and the Marble Valley League after low numbers and a lack of success in finding recruits forced it into a two-season hiatus. Taft said he hopes a jumpstart of incoming athletes will re-energize field hockey participation and put the program back on a sustainable path.
“It was heart-wrenching to do away with it,” Taft said. “Field hockey is part of our history and tradition here at Windsor. But in the last few years, we’ve had some strong junior high girls that continue to work at it. … Hopefully, we can get back on track.”
Field hockey was a longtime pillar of the Windsor athletic department, but years of low numbers finally led to its demise in August 2015.
Sandy Clary, who coached the team for 42 years up to the 2014 season, insisted at the time that the shutdown would be temporary, citing a swell of athletes coming from the Windsor Recreation Department’s feeder program, which was reorganized in 2012. Clary led the Yellowjackets to 25 consecutive state tournament appearances and six Vermont Division II championships, the most recent coming in 2009.
This past fall, four Windsor athletes were able to join Springfield High’s field hockey team via the VPA’s member-to-member program. The Cosmos defeated Woodstock in the D-II championship game. Three will be eligible to play with the Yellowjackets next fall.
David Bennett, whose daughter, Kaeli, is committed to field hockey and will be a freshman at Windsor next fall, said he remembers hearing rumors as far back as a year ago about Windsor reinstating the varsity team.
“I know that there’s been a group of parents who have been pretty clear that we really would like this to happen,” Bennett said.
“Personally, as a parent, I’m ecstatic about it. (My daughter) absolutely loves the sport. From my perspective, I couldn’t be happier.”
Bennett said his daughter is one of eight girls committed to playing field hockey next fall and the age group after — eighth-graders in the fall — is just as numerous. Windsor’s junior high program has seen its numbers swell and is undefeated in its last two seasons.
“I’ve always been fairly confident (the program would return),” Bennett said. “They just needed to boost the numbers up again. Some parents have done a good job talking about it in town like, ‘Field hockey is not dead.’ ”
Girls athletic programs at Windsor have struggled for numbers over the last several years, with participation mirroring a fluxuating enrollment. But Taft said the group of soon-to-be high school athletes with parents committed to field hockey pushed his department toward reinstatement.
Taft also said his department would address the program’s coaching situation within the next few weeks but declined to go into detail regarding the team’s coach until a final decision had been made.
“It was a sad day when we suspended field hockey,” Taft said. “But we’ve been talking to people and doing everything we can to make sure it was a viable option. We just needed enough kids.”
Bennett said his daughter’s commitment to field hockey, and its importance to the Windsor varsity program, is not lost on the Yellowjackets’ in-coming athletes. If anything, it gives them more of a reason to keep playing.
“A lot of the girls in next year’s eighth and ninth grade, they really feel like the program going forward is in their hands,” Bennett said. “They see it as, the sky is the limit for them.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.