Last weekend, championship games of the Calgary Secondary High Schools Athletic Association field hockey tournament were held. For the second straight year, Ernest Manning High School won the Calgary Secondary High School Athletic Association Division 3 championship, while Winston Churchill High won Division 1.

Why is this such an important occurrence? Calgary has perhaps the largest cluster of scholastic players and varsity teams in the country — 24 public schools. Yet, Alberta has not had the highest representation on the senior women’s national team in recent years. Indeed, when you look at the Canadian women’s national team pool, there is exactly one Albertan: Marian Dickinson, who is now at Duke University.

Instead, the cluster of talent in the country is in British Columbia, which has had the game of field hockey before Constance Applebee even came to American shores. Records of a game being played exist from around 1896. This led to the formation of the Vancouver Ladies’ Club, the oldest field hockey organization in North America.

To me, it’s an odd population/talent dichotomy. Look at the 12 largest cities in the United States and how many scholastic field hockey teams (both public and private schools) are located therein:

New York 4
Los Angeles 1
Chicago 1
Houston 2
Philadelphia 19
Phoenix 0
San Antonio 1
San Diego 14
Dallas 3
San Jose 8
Detroit 0 

Now, while Philadelphia has a large concentration of schools in the city, the talent is instead in the suburbs: amongst recent national-teamers from outside the city limits are Lori Mastropietro (Richboro), Tracey Larson (Fallsington), Lauren Crandall (Doylestown), Katie Reinprecht (North Wales), Melissa Leonetti (Erdenheim), and Katie O’Donnell (Blue Bell).

Are there lessons for selectors as Canada picks up the pieces after a disappointing finish in its qualifier last month? Perhaps some of those lessons can be found inland.