Playing Field Hockey while Studying Abroad

The university of Edinburgh has one of the largest FH programs in the UK. So when I saw the booth at the athletics fair, I signed up. It was explained to me that the university has 9 women FH Teams (and 7 men’s). And at tryouts we would get divided into the teams deemed appropriate based on the skills we showed.

For those who do not know. I played field hockey up into the collegiate level where, after a year, I made the decision to stop playing. There were many reasons that led to this decision. Most of which was based around the time commitment of the team and how it clashed with my major, geology. Anyways, today we had a four hour tryout. For some reason I was not nervous at all, just excited to get on the field again. After padding up I instantly felt like I was back, and I have to say, I played really well.

I think it was the fact I was so relaxed; I was diving, sliding, knocking balls out of the air, and just enjoying the sport. Even when it started pouring rain (the way one would expect it to in Scotland) I was smiling the entire time.

Afterwards, the girls from the team came up to talk to me. They had heard I was on exchange from the states and their first question was if I had been on scholarship. I really hope this does not come off as me bragging, I am just so excited to share.

The other goalies on the other teams shared that they thought I did amazing, and after watching me, they had decided that they were going to “give me team 3” (out of 9 and after not playing competitively for over 2 years!) which meant they would actually have to shift down other goalies that were already on the team! However after learning I was only there for a semester, they decided to stick me on a team with another goalie, that way when I left it wouldn’t hurt the team.

Also after that I went to a touch rugby tryout. I am 100% positive I’ll be extremely sore tomorrow.