Blue Streaks would like more time to adjust
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The summer of 2018 was cut short for many Section 2 athletes this year as it began Monday morning, but the lost time in the sun may soon be forgotten as competition is also just around the corner.
“I don’t see a reason why we started this early,” Saratoga Springs field hockey coach JoAnne Hostig said. “I think it would be better to have waited a week just because of what we have in Saratoga in the summertime. It makes it even harder on the kids to have to adjust.”
The action on Union Avenue not only dominates the sports pages locally, but it also can envelope the lives of those around Saratoga Race Course.
“Some of them aren’t even in their houses because they rent them out and others are work-
ing,” Hostig said. “The Travers is coming up so I think another week in itself would help and I think it’s harder on the maintenance people here to get things ready. It’s kind of just a domino effect there.
“I mean I’m lucky that my fields ready because they really pushed, they worked overtime to make sure it got done. So I think another week actually would be beneficial.”
The sacrifice of some of the players could pay dividends as Hostig may need more time early on because of the strength of the Blue Streaks program.
“It’s taken longer to evaluate because I’ve got an army on JV, which is awesome because we’ve been building and we have two teams that are modified level so it’s a great thing, but then it makes it a little harder to put the pieces together. Then I have to make decisions sooner because we have a game in a week and a-half.
“We’re skill building all the time, but it’s definitely trying to figure out the pieces of what’s going to be on the field come that week after.”
Adjacent to the Saratoga Springs field hockey practice, Adrienne Dannehy and her staff were putting the girls soccer squads through their first day of fall work.
“In a perfect world, I would prefer three weeks of preseason because then you don’t feel like you’re jamming everything into the first week and a-half because once you’re here for a week and a half, you kind of want to start scrimmaging,” Dannehy said. “You start scrimmaging and in your second half of that second week, so how much practicing are you getting in?”
She would more time to develop her own players.
“Three full weeks – That gives us time to stretch things out,” Dannehy said. “You don’t have to feel the need to do double sessions and getting, you know, cram a whole bunch of stuff in.
“I think you would have fewer injuries because you can spread things out, you can talk more about your strategy, stuff that you can work more on the tactical things and then you know, and then you start your games.”