Sophia Lihatsh and Quinn Jasinski faced uncertainty earlier this year when their hometown Springfield High School made the decision to cut field hockey. But hard work by both girls and open arms from a former rival saved their field hockey careers.
Earlier, Springfield athletic director Richard Saypack had to make the difficult decision. “It came after a lot of research, and looking at things real close,” he said. “You don’t like dropping any program.” Saypack outlined some of the issues facing the field hockey program in recent years, including the death of a once-strong feeder program. “We used to have a strong program from the Parks and Rec department, as well as the middle school,” he explained. “Interest had waned over the years. Numbers were not where they needed to be to field a team comfortably.” One reason for the dwindling numbers, in Saypack’s opinion, is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We could see seven years ago that we were in trouble, but we made steps to help it recover,” he said. “After COVID, the numbers really started to spiral.”
“I was really sad at the beginning,” said Jasinski. “Field hockey is my sport.” Lihtash said that she began looking at other sports like soccer, or the possibility of playing nothing at all this fall. Upon learning the news, the two girls and their families began looking for options. “Sophia’s dad had reached out in February or March when they had gotten word from their AD that field hockey was being cancelled, and he just said, ‘What can we do?’,” said Woodstock head field hockey coach Leanne Tapley. “I knew him from work, so I told him I don’t really know, but I can try to help in any way I can. So we just started communicating.”
Both students had schools that they were disinterested in approaching, but found Woodstock to be an ideal fit. “Woodstock seemed nice and we had heard so many good things about it,” said Jasinski. The only hurdle to getting them on the team was the Vermont Principals Association’s member-to-member policy. “It goes by need,” explained Saypack. “Some schools will say they won’t accept any member-to-member, some will, based on need. Woodstock called us and said we know you have kids that will need to go somewhere, and we are gonna need players.” The policy, according to Saypack, is a good protection from schools recruiting student-athletes from other schools.
Thankfully, for the two student-athletes who have both been playing field hockey since third grade, their applications to the VPA were approved, and their transition from Cosmos to Wasps could begin. Tapley said that she and the team invited both girls to join them to compete in a spring league at Burr & Burton and a summer league. “We were accepted as soon as we first got here,” said Lihatsh.
For more on this, please see our October 2 edition of the Vermont Standard.
