By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Boy and Girl Scouts often take on the task of constructing something as their required community project for their top awards in Scouting.
For her Gold Award project, Emily Van Pelt began to build a field hockey program from the ground up.
Emily, a Hillsborough High School junior and a Senior Girl Scout, has completed her bronze, silver and most recently her Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive.
For her community project, she designed a project she called “Field of Dreams.” Her goal was to create a dedicated field space in Hillsborough for recreation field hockey for youngsters.
Emily, a Girl Scout since age 5, said she was introduced to field hockey as a 6th grader after she returned home as Junior Midget national champion from the Pop Warner Cheer Nationals in Orlando, Florida, in 2009. Young years of yelling her heart out led to vocal cord damage, she said, and she was unable to return to cheerleading.
So she transitioned to field hockey, only to find out quickly that there was no in-town program for the sport. She worked at remedying that for five years and in 2014 realized her dream of seeing a playing field designed at Harold Docherty Memorial Park.
I liked the team aspect of field hockey, and I definitely liked running,” she said “Something clicked for me and fell into place for me and it all worked out.”
She plays a forward position on the high school team and will return for her senior year in the fall.
In the first years of effort for the Gold Award, Emily said she researched what field hockey resources were available in town and nearby. She found there was a lack of recreational and travel programs, as well as no township field space to teach children the sport.
While collaborating with the Hillsborough Parks and Recreation Department, she worked to obtain supplies to create the field (paint for lining the field, equipment box, field hockey goals/cages, etc.).
She said she reached out to many colleges and area schools to allow for two gently used field hockey goals to be donated to the township parks and recreation department to complete the field. Donated equipment — notably field hockey sticks, goalie equipment and balls — were obtained from fellow players upgrading their current equipment.
Finally, under a grant from USA Field Hockey called FUNdamental FH program, a complete set of 24 sticks, balls, cones and curriculum guide was awarded.
“Field hockey is a sport widely played around the world, however, in Hillsborough, field hockey is not introduced until the middle school because there is no recreation program,” she wrote. “By developing the field, the children can be exposed to field hockey so we can grow the game. By establishing the dedicated space, programs and teams can be developed. Also, dedicated space is available for current field hockey players to practice skills and scrimmage play with teammates to master proficiency.”
She and her club coach, Ingrid Alkhoven of Total Dutch Field Hockey, hosted an eight-week clinic for girls and boys in grades 4-8 in the fall of 2014.
“It was a great success and watching the kids learn was immensely rewarding,” she said.
This spring, a second clinic was held targeted to older players preparing for tryouts for the middle school program. A total of 42 children participates in the two clinics.
This month, she said she finalized details with the Jr. Raiders organization for a newly developed field hockey program for township children in grades K-8 that will begin in the fall. She said the Jr. Raiders are talking about a field program similar to the township lacrosse setup. It would play a few scrimmages against other recreation teams at the start.
She thanked Coach Alkhoven, the township parks and recreation department, Hillsborough Athletics, Hillsborough Board of education, the Township Committee, the high school field hockey team, Temple University field hockey, USA Field Hockey, Staples, Mailboxes, Benjamin Moore, Sherman Williams and countless high school field hockey player volunteers, she said.
