Start Date:

The 2024 season will begin on August 26th and conclude the last week of October.

Our main home field, Fairfield University Field, is not open for use until the week of September 2nd, therefore, we will hold practice for the first week at Wakeman Field. Each team will have 1 practice day during the first week which will serve as the first tryout date. If you are unable to attend, please let one of your grade coaches know. Starting the second week, all teams will follow the regular practice schedule, and we will conclude tryouts at the end of week 2. We will not have practice on Labor Day, so teams slotted to practice that day will use their first practice the following week to conclude tryouts. Once tryouts are concluded, each player will know their team, their coach and schedule.   

Practice Times, Locations & Coaches:
Our practice schedule is now available on our site's calendar.  Once we finish tryouts/allocations and assign teams, you will have a detailed schedule also available per team in the sportsengine app.  We will adjust starting times at Wakeman field for the shorter days after the first 3-4 weeks at which point we will start at 5:30 PM and towards the end 5:00 PM and go to dark, roughly around 6:45 PM.

Coaches

• 8A & 8B - Sam Dunn and Jan Sjogren
• 7A & 7B - Lindsay Muldoon, Erika Garvey and Abby Bauer
• 5/6A, 5/6B & 5/6C - Jessica Iannacone, Kristin Eller, Stepanie Reap and Maggie O’Donnell and Courtney Cataldo
  • PLEASE NOTE”: We will have 3 5/6 teams and will rotate one team to practice at Wakeman Field each week to allow more space for all 3 teams.) See detailed schedule for specific dates and field allocations.
• 4 - Jan Sjogren and TBD

Game Schedules & Communications
The game schedule for 2024 will be published by the league in the coming weeks. Typically, we will know date and times for the first 3-4 weekends and the rest of the schedule will be made available a couple of weeks prior to scheduled games.

In addition to league games, FYFHA will play some games against other non-league teams and these schedules will be loaded onto our teams app.  Starting this year, we will be using a single team app that will allow parents, coaches and players to download the app and be able to view practice times, game schedules, info/comms to/from your coach, chat room for parents, last minute changes, updates etc. it will serve as a one stop shop for anything and everything related to the 2024 season. During the first week of practice your coaches will help you set-up the app and be available to help navigate

Try-outs/allocations
To allow your child to play on a team and against teams of similar skill level and age, we will assess players on various skills and drills to make sure we put them on a team accordingly. We call it tryouts, but of course all players will have a spot on a team, so it’s more of an assessment. Once completed, we will post all team rosters. If you have any questions or concerns as it pertains to these tryouts, please let your coach know. We may make some adjustments to each final roster but cannot accommodate players to switch teams for non qualified reasons (E.g. They have a friend playing on another team)

Gear
All players must wear our team issued uniforms for games. For practice they can wear similar clothes or their uniforms. In addition, for ALL practices and games each player is required to wear a mouthpiece and proper shin guards. (soccer pads are not recommended as they are shorter and softer) NO EXCEPTIONS! Any player showing up for a game or practice without shin guards and a mouthpiece will not be allowed to participate that day. Eye protection is no longer mandatory, but players are  welcome to wear them if they choose. Players must have a proper field hockey stick. As we play all games on astro turf, regular sneakers, turf shoes or equivalent should be worn. Cleats or baseball shoes are not allowed. During practice and games, all exposed jewelry must be taken off or covered with tape. If you have any questions on gear, feel free to talk to your coach or any fyfha administrator on the sportsengine team app.

Parent Coaching Opportunities
Every year we encourage parents to volunteer as parent coaches.  No prior experience is required so if you are interested, please reach out to your coach during the first week of practice to sign-up. You can also sign-up by sending an email to:fyfhainfo@gmail.com. The parent coach would assist the head coach during practices and games. Help running drills, getting team organized, coordinate the sidelines during games among other duties. It is a great way to begin to get some field hockey coaching exposure and if the interest is still there, be in a position to take on a head coaching role next year should you want to. You would be paired with the coach of the team your daughter is playing on. You are not expected to be available every practice or game. Any and all help is always welcomed.

The FYFHA Approach
Many towns around us in Fairfield have organizations where they make coaching, practices and games available through their respective programs. Some are very large, and others are smaller.  FYFHA is one of the smaller/middle of the pack organizations. We are a non-for-profit and strive to provide this service at an affordable rate to as many kids as possible. We see kids starting in 4th grade or even earlier through the little stags program and by the time they reach high school in Fairfield, most if not all qualify to play on their respective high school teams (JV and Varsity). It is therefore imperative that we can continue this program in order to stay competitive and keep feeding players to the high schools and beyond. Our practices are run by qualified coaches and become progressively more intense and tailored from 4th to 8th grade. We invest in having what we call tech coaches, players mainly from Fairfield University Varsity Team, to assist in practice, sharing their skill and their experiences as world class University athletes. We always try to mix fun with focus and instill the importance of teamwork and what it means to be part of a team, work hard at practice and be well prepared for game time!

Needless to say, we have zero tolerance for any behavior contrary to being a good teammate and a good citizen.  We wish you a great 2024 season!