Fitch Field Hockey: Success Story Before It Starts

When Elizabeth Nolan and Joanie Haling entered Fitch Senior High School a few years back, they were greatly disappointed.

While they loved the area and liked most aspects of the school, their plans for athletic salvation met a major detour.

Nolan, who moved from Pennsylvania, and Haling, who had attended Williams prep school, excelled in the sport of field hockey before high school. Now they were at a school without a field hockey team.

It's been one of the quiet mysteries on the Eastern Connecticut Conference sports landscape. Fitch, one of the area's bigger schools steeped in overall athletic excellence, never offered varsity field hockey. Stonington, a much smaller school, has dominated the ECC with a Fitch physical education teacher, Jenna Tucchio, as coach.

Lack of fields, lack of coaching, lack of equipment. Whatever the reason, Fitch never got a program going. But Nolan, Halie and others, particularly Fitch middle school teacher, Diane Kolnaski, were able to "stick" to their hope of founding Fitch field hockey.

This fall, the Falcons' first varsity field hockey team will play a 15-game schedule. Nolan and Halie will be senior captains after leading a field hockey club in the last two seasons. They, along with classmate Anna Hermann, convinced Kolnaski, who was their volunteer assistant lacrosse coach at Fitch, to spearhead the drive from club to varsity.

"From what I was told early on, there was no chance the school was going to add field hockey," Haling said. "But we figured we had to fight for it to at least have the sport approved by our senior year. To see our work pay off and know we had a huge part in Fitch having field hockey, it's an amazing feeling."

Kolnaski is a bit amazed at the turn of events as well.

"I have three kids who are either in college or finished with college, so to be honest my plans did not include coaching a sport, especially one I had never played," Kolnaski said.

The Fitch field hockey campaigners compiled a list of 20 names of Fitch girls interested in playing field hockey and presented it to athletic director Rich Kosta. Ironically, Fitch had unopened boxes of field hockey equipment stored away from a previous aborted attempt to start a program. After Kolnaski committed to coach, the club made "a phenomenal presentation" to the Groton Board of Education.

Successful fundraisers and an agreement to institute a nominal "pay-to-play" fee were the final steps to convince the board to add field hockey as a varsity sport.

"Little by little, the field hockey club gained momentum and proved that it could be a viable varsity team," Kolnaski said. "When I saw the girls' pursuit of this, I had to step forward because they needed 'a body' to coach."

Kolnaski hails from an athletic family. Her husband, Ed, has coached scholastic soccer, fooball, hockey and tennis. Ed's sister is Paulla (Kolnaski) Solar, the Hall of Fame Stonington girls' basetball coach who started the SHS field hockey program.

"I have a lot of resources in the family and many people have offered help," Kolnaski said. "But I said if we were going to do this even on a volunteer basis, I had to do it right and learn the game."

In the past few years, Kolnaski has taken a field hockey crash course through attending camps and seminars. She ran a field hockey intramural program at Fitch Middle School in the spring, exposing the game to prospective high school players.

"The kids had a blast," Kolnaski said. "It was an informal program, but the girls got used to passing, shooting and the rules while playing field hockey on the gym floor."

Considering the school size, athletic talent and this sport's dynamics, Fitch may not take long to produce a representative team. Most scholastic field hockey players at any ECC school are exposed to the sport for the first time as freshmen. Therefore, Fitch's freshmen will be on equal footing as any other area first-year player and will eventually make up the learning curve.

"You have a select few who play on clubs, but there is not a field hockey feeder system before high school," Kolnaski said. "Youth soccer, basketball and lacrosse programs are everywhere, but not field hockey. That hopefully will change."

Fitch played competitively as a club last fall, playing the likes of Waterford, East Lyme, Stonington, Williams and Haddam-Killingworth subvarsities. Talented athletes who may have shied away from the program because of its club status may find the varsity tag more attractive this fall and join in.

"We have 17 returning girls," Kolnaski said. "Every game we played was close last year. The girls improved their skills dramatically. I don't know exactly what to expect this year, but I know we're excited."

The Falcons open the season Sept. 13 at Waterford and open at home (Mystic Education Center) versus NFA on Sept. 16. Their first practice is 9 a.m. Saturday at the MEC.