Yesterday’s Game of the Day
St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.) 1, St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.) 0
Today’s Game of the Day
Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) vs. Phillips Exeter Academy (N.H.) at Trinity College, 2:15 p.m. EDT
No. 10 Hotchkiss has dominated New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) competition the last five seasons, and with good reason: the Bearcats are quick, fearless, and decisive. But this should be a fine test.
Three weeks ago, Lee Tolliver, the dean of American field hockey writers, penned the following in The Virginian-Pilot’s sports section:
The U.S. women’s field hockey team is heading west.
That’s nothing new: about this time of year, the residency team usually leaves Landstown Road this time of year for the Moorpark and/or Chula Vista sites in California, since the winter weather is better.
But then, the hammer blow.
Whether it comes back to the National Training Center in Virginia Beach, its home since the $3.5 million facility opened in 2001, has yet to be determined.
While team officials have touted the Virginia Beach training center as one of the top turf fields in the world, they said it does not provide the support facilities necessary to prepare a team for world class competition.
“The women need a high-performance environment like what is available in California,” USA Field Hockey executive director Sheila Walker said. “They need the doctors, the weight-training, the high-tech training things. And it’s better if all that kind of stuff is located within a close proximity. Otherwise, it takes all day to get the job done.”
There has been wild speculation in many parts of cyberspace about whether the squabbling over an on-site physio center will lead to the shutdown or relocation of the 2008 National Futures Tournament, or even the sale of the entire Sportsplex.
Let’s deal with a little rumorbusting here.
- An agreement is in place to have the Virginia High School League finals at the National Training Center through 2009, so it’s unlikely that there is going to be a complete abandonment of the site any time soon. In fact, there is reputed to be a plan in place to relocate most scholastic varsity games in the Virginia Beach Public Schools from campus sites to the NTC starting as soon as 2008 if no agreement is reached.
- Despite nearby encroachment, it’s difficult to conceive of the site being sold to developers because of the current saturation of construction and the nationwide housing and mortgage bust.
- Virginia Beach cannot afford to have another tenant leave the Sportsplex; currently, there is no team playing in the soccer-specific stadium next to the NTC.
- Few places in the United States have two side-by-side water-based turfs built to FIH specification for the purpose of holding international or national championships.
- Fewer still have the necessary hotel infrastructure to host somewhere around 1,000 players and their families — not to mention a convention-sized space for the ahlete banquet/auction.
- Ultimately, if you’ve got any sense as a municipality, you don’t build a $3.5 million facility and allow your only tenant to abandon it.
Walker, in the Virginian-Pilot, sets a deadline of Aug. 8, 2008 to determine whether Team USA will ever come back to train in Virginia Beach.
It says here that moving out doesn’t make much sense.
