The Athlete Way

Field Hockey, the world's original stick and ball sport, is known simply as Hockey in most regions of the world. Read below to see how the ex-pat, hockey loving community in New York City gets fierce at Sunday games in Manhattan. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/nyregion/mens-field-hockey-isnt-rugby-but-watch-the-teeth.html?_r=1

Sunshine in California. Rain in New Jersey. Clouds in the Hague, and a heat wave in Carolina. Every great story starts somewhere. In some beaten woods of our imagination, or memory store of our mind. An experience ignites an idea. The idea catalyzes a sequence of inspiring thoughts. The story unfolds. Words are scribbled on paper; they wind and turn themselves upon a path that becomes more defined with each sentence. The story, inspired, quite happily travels upon its course; it winds every which way in pure intuition of its destiny. The words lend themselves to the terrain of the imagination; turning, spinning, and flipping on the branches of the imagination. Then experience arrives, and changes perspective. The sun filters through the pattern of the trees in a new way. Time and circumstance offer new insight that weave itself into the fabric of the story. The story seems forever changed. Yet the story is unaware. Then a moment comes, when the path muddies; the story becomes...

College athletics are special. No question. They offer an intricate blend of tantalizing forces that soothe our hunger for unity, excellence and community. They ladle out a delectable stew of youth, promise, persistence and passion to famished mouths that sit upon the necks of higher education. College athletics are powerful. They force social evolution through the uncomfortable yet constructive confrontation of race, society, class and gender. They explore issues by raising difficult questions about the blurred lines of purity and professionalism, wealth and privilege, education and sport. College athletics are entrancing. They mesmerize us with the images of kids coming of age on the sports field; coming of age on an experimental ground of learning - a place where faith, identity, and dreams are put on line, where limits are pushed, where failure is confronted, where losing happens, and despite those formidable encounter, confidence is instilled. College athletics are dynami...