Field Hockey
Louisville — ranked No. 4 nationally in the latest NFHCA rankings.
He will not play a college game either, since there are no NCAA men’s teams. He plans to work out and travel with the Cardinals in the fall of 2022. Gort is a home-schooled junior at ES South.
The young man is familiar with Louisville’s campus because he had family who lived there. His participation in the sport at the Kentucky college is not only due to his skills, but the result of an aggressive promotional campaign including highlight videos and correspondence.
“It’s always been a dream for me,” Gort said. “It’s very rewarding, but it’s also a lot of hard work. Studying college is definitely going to be a challenge. … Having male practice players is something they’re looking more to do because there are not many opportunities for boys to play. I play on a boys team and a lot of them are looking to be practice players.”
Gort will not receive athletic scholarship money, so he will have to rely on grants and academic aid. He plans to study criminal justice or forensic science at Louisville.
Time will tell if having male practice players is a trend or anomaly at the collegiate level. Larger Division I programs can afford to accommodate such players. Division II and III programs cannot.
While waiting to work out in an Atlantic Coast Conference facility, Gort continues to train hard as he can. He couldn’t land a spot on the East Stroudsburg South girls team as PIAA rules prevent boys from competing on girls’ teams.
Now, he must get creative and travel to find competition.
And most of his practices, sometimes three or four hours per day, are practices of one. He trains at productive clubs like the Monroe County-based Electric Surge, Excalibur and WC Eagles. He plays with a boys team called Band of Brothers, which cannot get together very often because the players live so far apart.
His ultimate goal is challenging but rather simple: He wants to play on the U.S. national men’s field hockey team.
“Seth is a great player,” Miller said. “He has a great backhand, great ball control and has a great shot. If he were a female, I would recruit him hard … and so would a lot of top D1 and D2 programs. I believe if Seth had more playing opportunities around here and with extra hard work, he could possibly play on our men’s national team.”
Gort does regret not having the chance to play for the East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers, but he understands the problem — so he moves on.
“I’ve been told that my skill is too intimidating for other players,” he said. “Some parents argue with me about hormones and stuff. There are some [girls] players who are better than me, and I use those players as examples. They tell me that my skills are better and I tell them that there are [girls] players who work harder and are better than me.
“It’s definitely something that I still have in the back of my head until something changes. I hope that I can make a change in some way,” he said.
At ESU’s practice, Gort — a midfielder — enjoys firing shots at the Warriors’ goalkeepers. Here, he added that another goal is to make the Olympic team. The U.S. will host the 2028 Olympic Games.
He gives most of the credit to Miller and her staff at ESU.
“Seth will know most field hockey players in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and will also know what brand stick they play with,” Miller said. “I am amazed at times at his knowledge of field hockey. One time I was going to watch Princeton play UConn I asked Seth if he wanted to come along with me … and of course, he did.”
“I want to thank Sandy Miller and Katie Ord,” Gort said. “They’re the most inspirational people in my field hockey career. They helped me get to where I am today. I would not be where I am today without them.”
Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.