We've all been there before. Practice is almost over, you're thirsty beyond words, and your coach mutters those unthinkable words: "One more lap—let's go!" Field hockey is the sport you love to hate but you wouldn't trade playing it for anything else.
1. Your back is constantly sore.
Leaning over to pick up the pencil you dropped in the middle of class is the biggest chore ever. You just leave the pencil on the ground because you'd rather fail the quiz you're taking than risk breaking your back to get it. You've had a standing weekly appointment at your chiropractor from August to November booked since March.
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2. The shinguard tan is very real.
Chances are, the shinguard tan you acquire during the field hockey season won't go away until your senior prom, so don't bother with the fake tan until then. Soccer girls will try to tell you that theirs are worse, but you know in your heart that the field hockey shinguard tan is far superior.
3. The soccer girls tell you you don't play a real sport.
Sorry, but what's less real about a sport where you whack a ball with a stick as opposed to kicking it with your foot? This argument has never made sense to you, but you let your best friend tell you why soccer is better because you know that field hockey is just as real as any other sport out there. Chances are, they wish they played such a hardcore sport.
4. Goggle vision is just too much.
You wear your goggles so much that when you're sitting in class and you realize you can actually fully see what is going on around you, it's like Christmas came early.
5. There are a million mouth guards in your bag.
Some are chewed to nothingness, some are brand new, and most are somewhere in that mix. If anyone ever forgets theirs, you've got them covered. (But their bag probably looks just like yours, so this is a rare occurrence). Also, you don't plan on emptying your field hockey bag until after you graduate.
6. The bruises on your knees aren't going to fade any time soon.
Your knees and quads will have bruises on them for the whole season. It's unavoidable. Whether it's from stopping balls with your body or getting whacked with a stick by a girl's back swing, your bruises look so legit that oftentimes it's tempting to tell people you got them from fighting a bear in the middle of the woods (it doesn't matter that bears aren't native where you live).
7. Pasta parties aren't for socializing, they're for eating.
Compared to other sports players, field hockey girls seem to have the biggest appetite. No one really knows why. But when you're at a pasta party the night before a game, it's not to hang out with your girls. It's to eat as much food as you can before the team mom kicks you out. Save the bonding for the bus rides.
8. A day without cleats is like a year without rain.
Forgetting your cleats for practice is embarrassing, but forgetting your cleats for a game is downright unbearable. You slip and slide everywhere and use the immense amount of time spent on the ground contemplating all your life decisions up until that point in time.
9. Fock yeah!
...is totally the coolest thing to say until you get sent to your principal's office for "cursing" in class. It makes you wonder who invented the phrase "Fockey" anyway.
10. Playing on turf is heaven on earth.
Watching the ball glide effortlessly across the length of the field is the best feeling in the world. If only your school would find money in its budget for turf, then this feeling could happen more than the one time you play that private school during the season.
11. The team bond is unbreakable.
No team bonds quite like a field hockey team. The bonding occurs on the bus rides to games, during those extra laps at practice, on the weekend hikes you take together, and everywhere in between. When you join a field hockey team you know you're about to form friendships that last long after the final game of the season.
