New Jersey Touts Strong Field Hockey Championship

By Emily Cerling

Some girls prefer to hit a home run. Others would rather shoot a free throw. But some New Jersey girls would just like to have a field hockey ball and stick.

A sport with origins before the ancient Olympic Games is as intense as any other sport in New Jersey state high school competition every fall.

Since the field hockey state tournament began in 1971, high school girls have been duking it out on the pitches. More than half (230) of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) schools sponsor the sport.

Classification is determined by school size, and both public and private schools participate. The schools are then divided into groups (Groups I, II, III and IV), and all teams with winning records proceed to the state tournament.

Even before the state competition begins, The Star Ledger, a prominent New Jersey newspaper, previews the state championship. Pictures and articles spark interest in the newspaper's readers. Every day of the tournament, updates are provided with results, photos and highlights. After the final day of the tournament, a two-page spread announces the champion.

The state tournament begins in late October with 14 teams in each group. The higher-seeded school hosts the match.

After the sectional champions are determined in early November, the group finals are held at Toms River (New Jersey) East High School in Toms River the following week. These facilities are used every year because of its outstanding conditions and turf field.

All four group championships are consecutively in one day, and the winners of those matches are declared state champions. Although the four victorious teams may have earned bragging rights, their seasons are not over yet.

Prior to the 2006 season, the state tournament concluded immediately after the group finals. However, last year, the game got a little more exciting. Each group winner now advances to the Tournament of Champions.

"For years we ended the season with group championships," said Carol Parsons, associate director of the NJSIAA. "We ended up with Group IV, III, II, and I champions, and sometimes a school in one of the smaller groups is really the stronger team. We now have the Tournament of Champions to determine which team is really the best."

After attending the group finals, a committee meets to discuss the seeding for the Tournament of Champions. It determines the rankings and sets up the finals bracket, with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed playing the No. 3 seed. School size and group category do not matter.

During the third week of November, at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, the four teams fight for their turn to claim the Tournament of Champions trophy.

In past years, the audience turnout has been strong. With an attendance of 2,726 last year at the group finals and 720 at the Tournament of Champions final, the players are sure to get enough fan support.

While the number of school rivalries is limited, Eastern High School in Voorhees has easily been the dominant team this decade.

"Eastern has eight state titles, and they are all in the past eight years," Parsons said. "Several other schools have more titles, and there is one they are tied with, but those titles were all scattered."

Eastern has already made history, winning the first Tournament of Champions last year. If Eastern claims another title this year, it will tie the national record for most consecutive State field hockey titles with Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Emily Cerling is a fall semester intern in the NFHS Publications/Communications Department. She is a senior at Butler (Indiana) University, majoring in integrated communications.