For the first time since 2012, the Haddonfield Memorial High School field hockey team entered this season as the defending sectional champions.
However, head coach Lindsay Kocher didn’t want her team thinking about how good they were in 2015. She wanted them focused on trying to be good in 2016.
“Every year is a new team, and that’s what we kind of focused on at the beginning of the season,” Kocher said. “We were fortunate to make it far last year, but that was last year.”
The returning players heard Kocher’s message loud and clear.
“We knew we couldn’t have the mentality that we were the same team as last year,” senior Caroline Bickel said.
In focusing on the present, this year’s Haddonfield field hockey team was able to match the same feat the 2015 team achieved. The Bulldawgs defeated Colonial Conference-rival Collingswood High School, 3–1, last Thursday to win their second consecutive Central Jersey Group I championship and 20th overall in program history.
“It feels better than last year,” senior captain Meghan Smart said. “All day today, we were getting pumped up, getting each other hyped for the game. For all of it to come together feels great.”
The Bulldawgs returned a sizable number of players from the 2015 championship team. However, Smart said this year’s title run was tougher than Haddonfield’s run last season.
“I feel like this year we had to overcome more obstacles as a team mentally,” Smart said. “But we were in that same mind that we knew we could get to where we were last year. We just had to work for it.”
“There’s a little bit of a target on your back (as defending champions), whereas last year we kind of flew under the radar for the majority of the season,” Kocher said. “Of course, everyone the following year is going to be gunning for you.”
One of those teams gunning for Haddonfield was Collingswood. The Panthers had won the Central Jersey Group I title in 2013 and 2014 and was a force again this year. The Bulldawgs and Panthers split the regular season series. Haddonfield won the first meeting in September, 3–2, and Collingswood returned the favor with a 2–1 win on Oct. 21.
Kocher said the team didn’t make any tactical adjustments following the loss, instead focusing on minimizing the mistakes the team made in the game.
“We didn’t change anything up other than focusing on the details,” Kocher said. “The little things that can add up and hurt us.”
“We just changed our mindset,” Smart said. “We worked as a team better. We needed to be unselfish, get that extra pass and just play together as a team.”
In the third meeting with Collingswood in last week’s championship, Haddonfield stormed out of the gate with a flurry of shots, four penalty corners in the game’s first four minutes and two goals in the game’s first 15 minutes. Before Collingswood could get a shot on goal, Haddonfield had already built a 2–0 lead it would not relinquish.
“Coming out, scoring right away and putting Collingswood on their toes was a big part of the mentality for us,” Smart said. “We knew if we came out hard and scored a goal, we could keep that vibe going.”
The Bulldawgs hope to have additional success at the state level as they compete in the NJSIAA Group I semifinals on Wednesday. Last year, Haddonfield lost in the NJSIAA Group I championship game to Shore Regional High School, 3–0.
This year, the Bulldawgs don’t just want to get back to the state title game. They want to win the program’s first state championship in 25 years.
“I think we keep our mindset, we can do anything,” Bickel said.
