Field hockey extended to Hempfield middle school girls

Hempfield Area middle schools will soon offer a field hockey program for girls.

During Monday’s school board meeting, members voted 6-3 to implement a field hockey team at the middle-school level, adding teams to Harrold, Wendover and West Hempfield middle schools. School board members Scott Learn, Paul Ward and Christopher Rossman voted against the program.

Maureen Ritson, president of the field hockey booster parent club, spoke during public comment, asking the board to approve the middle school program to give girls a better opportunity at receiving scholarship money by honing skills earlier in life.

“We need to start helping them out younger in life,” Ritson said. “A lot of the big schools in Pittsburgh, a lot of them they start their kids in elementary …. So these kids like live, eat and breathe field hockey.”

According to Ritson, almost 40 middle school girls are interested in the program, which will start during the 2019-20 school year.