Yesterday, the home ground of a defending national champion in field hockey was turned into a clinic site for a form of the game which is starting to emerge in a big way.
That form of the game is adaptive, or Para, hockey. It’s field hockey for persons with differing abilities, which has been rarely seen, much less recognized, in the last century of field hockey in the U.S.
How rare is it? I’ve only seen maybe four instances of a person with a disability participating with their high-school teams. We interviewed one of these players a quarter-century ago, Robyn Kratenstein, who is now a medical doctor. In addition, we profiled former Princeton goalkeeper Meg DeJong, who made a Final Four despite a hearing loss due to a fever.
But the representation of persons with disabilities has grown in the last few years, to the point where you are seeing rostered college athletes with differing abilities.
This year, Penn State-Harrisburg has a defender named Maggie Kutz, who has Down Syndrome. Also, Pace University has a junior forward named Katelyn Fairhurst, who, because of Cholesteatoma, is deaf in one ear.
But while these athletes have overcome considerable odds to make their respective teams, there are an expanding number of programs which expose the game to Para hockey athletes. One of these programs has been around a while on Long Island. The other, the PA Revs All Starz, held a clinic at Kutztown University yesterday.
Clinics like these are invaluable resources for parents looking to get their children involved in athletic activities. I’d like to see more of this in the sport of field hockey.
