By Kim J. Harmon

With a thrilling – and exhausting – loss to Simsbury in the first round of the CIAC Class L state tournament (five overtimes, with more than 100 minutes of end-to-end competition), the Newtown High School field hockey team put an end to, perhaps, its finest season in the last 20 years.

Okay, the ‘Hawks finished 7-8-3, which is under .500, but they narrowly missed earning a spot in the South-West Conference tournament and did earn a spot in the CIAC Class L state tournament after only a one year absence.

The idea is that the field hockey team seems to have turned a corner . . . that the program is no longer a place for 45 or 50 girls to while away a couple of months in the fall . . . that the program is going to strive to become one of the best in its conference . . . that the program is going to make visits to the state tournament an annual occurrence.

Sure, it didn’t seem that way just 10 games into coach Kathleen Davey’s first year.

At that point, the ‘Hawks were just 1-6-3 and struggling just to score goals. Since then, however, the ‘Hawks are 10-9-3 and finding that scoring goals has gotten a whole heck of a lot easier. The 19 goals they scored in 2000 in the most the program has seen in one season since 1980.

The two captains – Lauren Bass and Abby Reynolds – were there to see this shift in the forward momentum of the program first hand and had a chance this week to remark on how it all happened and how it’s going to go.

First off, how was the bus ride home from Simsbury?

LB: It was disappointing, but we put up a good fight and if you have to go out with a loss, then that’s the way to do it.

AR: I thought it would be a lot quieter than it was. I was disappointed, because it was my last game, but we had played a great game.

Any regrets about your 7-8-3 season?

AR: It took us a while to realize how good we were – and maybe we wouldn’t have had those two ties (0-0 to Joel Barlow and Weston).

LB: If we realized sooner how good we could be, we would have done really well. If we were to go (back), I don’t think those teams would stand a chance against us.

What were the goals at the beginning of the season?

LB: We all made a list of our personal goals and our teams. A personal goal would be to learn how to do a dodge, or something like that. In the middle of the season, our team goals became bigger and broader.

AR: We definitely wanted to make states. We definitely improved since last year and we played such a great season.

How were you able to get this far?

LB: Except for Abby and me, this is a completely new team and it’s incredible to get as far as we did.

AR: We got along so well and coach (Kathleen) Davey brought of lot of that into it. She told us about her other team (Watertown High School, which became a Naugatuck Valley League power in her time there), but she said we came together a lot better than they did.

At 10 games into the 1999 season, you were 1-6-3. But you finished 4-7-3 and just missed the CIAC state tournament. What happened and how did it turn around so fast?

LB: I think we were re-learning how to play field hockey. Later, we clicked as a team, but it just happened too late.

AR: The way we were taught before was so much different than how coach Davey taught us.

What have been the team’s biggest strengths since then?

AR: Working as a team has been our biggest strength.

LB: Sometimes it’s been a challenge, but for the most part its been pretty easy to get everyone working together because everyone wanted to do well.

After this nice run since last season, what remains as the team’s biggest weakness?

AR: We have trouble playing our game. We tend to play down to the other team we’re playing.

LB: We haven’t developed consistency, yet.

Pomperaug is, perhaps, your biggest rival, yet you have never been able to beat them. Is it just a mental block or are they really unbeatable?

AR: It’s mental. Everyone thinks they are so good and that they are going to come in and kill us and if they come down and score we just give up.

How has the attitude in the program changed?

AR: No one used to take field hockey seriously. Now they do.

KB: Now they are going out to play field hockey as a sport rather than a social club. It’s a sport just like soccer or volleyball.

Do you feel that this is the start of something really good for the Newtown High School field hockey program and how does it feel to be leaving it now that it seems to be happening?

LB: Abby and I are the only seniors. This is definitely the start of something really good. The Davey’s have been really good for us.

AR: I wish the Davey’s had coached me since I was a freshman. I think the freshmen and sophomores are really, really lucky to have them for all four years because they have made such a difference.