BOULDER (10/6/10) - The Colorado Buffaloes field hockey team will open the 2010 fall season on Sunday Oct. 10 at 11 a.m. against rival Colorado State at Kittredge Field on the CU-Boulder campus.
Following the game the Buffs will host a clinic on the field to help bring field hockey awareness to young children in the Boulder and Denver area. Children will have the opportunity to watch the game and then get hands-on tips on different field hockey skills from the players. The clinic will begin at noon (or as soon as the collegiate game is over) and will go on until about 1 p.m.
"A few parents have reached out to us asking about any field hockey teams for the younger girls not in college in Colorado," said CU captain Ali Beach. "We are hosting this clinic after the game to promote field hockey awareness and the sport in the state, and hopefully spark some developing teams throughout different middle school and high schools in Colorado."
Field hockey is more popular on the West and East Coasts then it is in Colorado and it is has been difficult for the sport to gain a following in the state. Yet the CU program has grown tremendously over the last four years.
In 2007 the Buffs only had seven players, no coach and played no more than two games. Since then the team has expanded.
This year CU held its first tryouts with the team taking 28 players from the 45 women that came out for the team. The Buffs also hired a head coach last year in Frances Friedland who was an All-American player at NCAA Division I Virginia, and the team joined the National Field Hockey League as an honorary member this past spring.
With the team on the rise, the all female Buffs will look to get revenge on a coed Rams club that defeated them 1-0 last year.
CU and CSU will play each other again eight days later on Oct.18 at 8 p.m. in Fort Collins.
Colorado Buffaloes Field Hockey Fall 2010 Schedule
Oct. 10 vs. Colorado State, 11 a.m.
Oct. 18 at Colorado State, 8 p.m.
Oct. 24 vs. adult leagues in Denver
Nov. 5-7 at California Tournament
Nov. 14 vs. Colorado State or an adult league team
