Field Hockey Festival meets true goals for Fallbrook team

Although Fallbrook High School’s off-season field hockey team lost all six matches the club played in the National Field Hockey Festival, the Nov. 27-30 tournament in Indio served the goals of coach Jeremiah Fuller.

“That festival can be described best as more of a learning experience,” Fuller said. “It’s more of a team bonding experience and learning.”

The National Field Hockey Festival is also witnessed by college coaches. “Our ultimate goal was to do a little bit of recruitment for the colleges,” Fuller said.

“It was really good exposure for the girls,” Fuller said. “That in itself is totally worth the festival.”

Because the tournament took place after the end of the CIF field hockey season, the team did not officially represent Fallbrook High School. Since the off-season field hockey teams cannot call themselves the Warriors, they normally use the name Guac Girls for out-of-season tournaments and the indoor league. Fuller coaches both the high school varsity team and the off-season squads.

Although the under-19 field was filled before Fuller could register the Guac Girls, the Poway Mystix club which utilizes players from the five Poway Unified School District high schools had two entries and only needed one. The Fallbrook club thus competed as the Poway Mystix Guac.

The 126 under-19 girls teams were randomly placed in 18 pools. The Poway Mystix Guac competed in Pool B. “We didn’t win any games. We scored a few goals. But it’s just a good experience,” Fuller said.

The National Field Hockey Festival includes regional all-star teams as well as school squads, and teams from throughout the United States and Canada travel to the festival. “It’s the best of the best of the best girls,” Fuller said.

On Nov. 27, the Guac lost 1-0 to the Buffalo Hurricanes and 5-0 to Element Athletics. The Nov. 28 games ended with Fuller’s squad losing a 2-1 game against Princeton Field Hockey Club and a 2-0 match against Sutter’s Brigade. The Nov. 29 matches for the Guac were a 3-1 loss to Pinnacle Field Hockey and a 5-0 defeat against WC Eagles Blue.

The Buffalo Hurricanes players live in 10 different New York towns; four New England states provided girls for the Element Athletics; the Pinnacle sticksters reside in six Michigan towns and one Ohio city; nine towns in New Jersey accounted for the Princeton players; Sutter’s Brigade consisted of teammates from nine Pennsylvania towns; and 12 Pennsylvania towns contributed to the roster of WC Eagles Blue.

San Diego County had a regional club team, Rush Field Hockey, whose players included Fallbrook High School junior Tatiana Arias. Rush played in Pool F and had a 4-0-2 record during the tournament to finish second behind the High Voltage club of Virginia which finished 5-0-1. Arias scored two goals for Rush during the tournament.