THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511210144
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: Lee Tolliver
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
The Cox High field hockey team brought home a national-record seventh-straight Group AAA state championship over the weekend.
As if doing so wasn't hard enough, the apparent combined efforts of those involved in putting on the tournament made it more so.
Why do so many in Northern Virginia field hockey circles seem to have such a problem with the fact that the Beach District fields the best hockey teams in the state?
But it's always been that way - even in sports such as gymnastics, once dominated by Northern Virginia schools.
When Salem and Kellam won state gymnastics titles several years ago, some up north acted like the world had come to an end. Comments from parents, athletes and coaches alike were simply unsuitable for print in a family newspaper.
And while nobody has more regional pride than myself, if somebody is better, they're better. That's the nature of athletics.
But in the last three years, some events at the state field hockey tournament have been more than a little upsetting.
The tournament site in the Central Region three years ago wasn't even suitable for a Saturday afternoon pickup football game - much less a state high school tournament field hockey tournament.
The Virginia High School League, which governs all state tournaments, should never have awarded the event to that school because of playing conditions.
Last year the tournament was drenched by near-freezing rain, but that's nobody's fault. Still, when the final boiled down to an all-Beach affair between Cox and Bayside, some of the chatter on the sidelines was about as immature as you'd ever hear.
This year, it was worse.
Even before the tournament began, snide remarks were being made. Bayside coach Kathy Mustain was asked an appalling question by host athletic director Sandy Reynolds. ``We wanted to practice and she asked me, `You don't think you're going to win, do you?' '' Mustain said. ``I couldn't believe it. Of course we expect to win, or we wouldn't be here.''
Last Wednesday, when it became obvious that rain was going to cause the start of the tournament to be pushed back to Friday and result in the semifinals and final being played on Saturday, Reynolds practically chewed my head off when I asked if the final could be played in the Beach on Monday if it became an all-Beach affair.
I was merely thinking of the girls playing back-to-back games on Saturday - not insinuating that other teams weren't good enough to make it to the final as Reynolds so rudely suggested.
And when I heard the context of a nasty remark made by a Lake Braddock assistant to a Bayside player during quarterfinal play on Friday, I couldn't believe my ears.
His conduct made his team's foul-mouthed, bullying style of play easier to understand. Had the same happened to one of his players I'm sure he would have wanted someone's head on a stick.
And there were other things that struck a nerve.
Cox athletic trainer Sherri White was told by Oakton High athletic trainers that she should have brought her own ice and water when she asked for some. Get real! This was a state tournament for goodness sake!
Many other extras you'd expect at a state-level event were missing, like ball girls working the sidelines to speed up the game. It was almost like the hosts were put out by the whole thing.
And it left a feeling that they were trying to make things hard on the Beach folks.
While Cox coach Nancy Fowlkes acknowledged that Reynolds and her people did everything they could to make the fields as playable as possible - and they did - she said she was also unnerved by some of the things she had heard.
And by an incident concerning what jerseys were to be worn during the final. Lake Braddock only had yellow jerseys like the Falcons', and Cox was forced to wear its away jerseys although they were the home team.
``My problem with the uniforms was the approach (Reynolds took),'' Fowlkes said. ``I felt like they were trying to tell me I wasn't the home team. We had planned ahead and had two parents who were already whisking the uniforms off to a laundry to get them cleaned.
``She was trying to meet with me at the wrong time over a problem that wasn't mine.''
Several years ago, Oakton officials put on a classy tournament matched only by the efforts of Virginia Beach in 1992.
But in the last three years, Beach representatives have left tournament sites with less than a good feeling about the way they were treated.
It's a shame, because nothing should taint the efforts of the finest field hockey program in state history.
When the rest of the state comes to Virginia Beach next year for the Group AAA event, no matter who wins or loses, those who travel here to put forth their best efforts will be treated with some good Beach hospitality.
As it should be. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 10 of The Beacon for this date.]
by CNB