After a Covid-stricken season last year, field hockey at Williston is back and ready to compete this fall.

On Sept. 11 the team showcased their skills in a playday at Deerfield Academy. Their first home game was the following Saturday (Sept. 18) on Galbraith field. On Wednesday, Sept. 23, the team beat Miss Porter’s 9-0.

The team is ready to have a normal season this year with a full schedule of games and the ability to compete in playoffs. Some of the newer players on the team have not experienced a real field hockey season at Williston yet.

Sarah Markey, a day student, is excited for her role on the team in her final season as a Wildcat.

“I’m very excited to be one of the senior leaders on the team this year because I’ve been in the field hockey program at Williston for so long,” she said. “It’s fun to finally be one of the older girls.”

However, Sarah is slightly skeptical after not having a season last year.

“I think it is a little bit hard to get back into the swing of things and games after not playing against teams for so long,” she said. “But I think our intra-squad scrimmages from last year helped us to stay in the field hockey mindset.”

Williston lost its first game, to St. Mark’s, 2-0. Despite this, before Saturday’s game, Sarah was confident in the team’s abilities, recognizing that “everyone brought their best effort to the two play days we had,” which makes her “confident for the season.”

Sofia Michalski, a senior day student, is also certain the team will have success this season.

“I think our team has started to come together especially after the last two play days,” she said. “I think each game we played we got better and had specific things to work on that we improved upon.”

Last fall, Sarah missed the team dynamic, something she and Sofia are both looking forward to reestablishing.

“I really missed the team chemistry that we have on bus rides because we had a lot of the same chemistry on the field,” she said. “The rides and listening to music as a team that happens for away games couldn’t be replicated during the Covid year.”

Sofia Michalski, a senior day student at Williston, is also excited to be back after missing out on the team dynamic last year. She particularly missed “the feeling of everyone uniting on gameday, especially the atmosphere.” The bus ride to games and “everyone just coming together against another team is a lot different than scrimmages.”

Last year, during the 2020 fall season, Williston did its best to keep competitive spirts up by participating in 7-v-7 intra-squad scrimmages. Due to the Covid restrictions in place, they were unable to visit different campuses or have other schools come to Williston for traditional 11-v-11 games.

It was difficult for the players to miss out on a season and all of the excitement that comes with games, playoffs, bus rides, and even ringing the bell after a victory. Now that restrictions have been lifted, however, Sofia is looking forward to having a real game schedule for her senior season.

Despite being out due to injury, Sarah is thrilled to be back and can not wait to see what the season will bring after watching the team during the playdays.

“I was really happy watching our team. It made me feel very good about our future,” she said.