Nobody likes to lose. FHC’s JV and Freshman football coach always says, “Show me somebody who is okay with losing, and I will show you a loser.” The Forest Hills Field Hockey team was heartbroken after their second loss of the year to Hartland. However, a season is a process. It is a grind to become great and leave a legacy. Although the Forest Hills girls varsity field hockey team did not leave a legacy of a state championship, they will leave a legacy of a great team that loved their teammates and showed it while they played.

“This field hockey season has been so amazing,” FHC junior Brooke Buchanan said. “Playing field hockey was great, but the best thing about this year was the people on the team. We actually became a family over the season. Everyone trusted and actually cared about each other.”

Brooke went on to say that there was no fighting on the team. She said that it did not matter what grade a teammate was in or what school they came from. Varsity head coach Andrea Shaner was also extremely happy to see the family aspect of her field hockey program grow.

One of the principles that Shaner preached this year to her field hockey team was “family first”. Even if the team lost a game, she was happy with the way that they came together after games and throughout the year.  Shaner also preached another value in their season-long run for a state title: make sure to have fun.

“Everybody is really close to each other,” FHC junior Anna Tomsheck said. “Having chemistry with teammates like that just makes it more fun to play.”

It is seemingly amazing how much fun this team had. They scored 6 goals in a half against St. Catherine in their quarterfinal. They had one player show up to Senior Day with a giraffe costume on. However, it is hard for a team to have fun when the players don’t like each other. If it weren’t for the FH captains, the family aspect of the FH field hockey program may not exist.

“Our captains, Caitlin Murphy, Josie David, and Rachel Martin, really displayed leadership in the way that they cared about every individual,” Shaner said. “It is tough to unite 38 girls from three different high schools, but we really were a family this season.”

The third value that Shaner wanted to see from her players was letting “their character define them”. Everyone saw this as they overcame many deficits with the value of grit. Their character came through their captains and spread to the rest of the team.

“One thing that the team did really well this season was never give up,” Anna said. “There were handfuls of games where we were down by 1 or 2 goals, but we looked at the scoreboard like it was still 0-0.”

Shaner hopes to carry these values onto next year with new leadership as she loses all three of her captains including First Team All-State Caitlin Murphy and All-State Honorable Mention Rachel Martin. However, Shaner looks forward to returning so many of her experienced players. One of these players is First Team All-State Madisyn Bunke. She knows that there is some uncertainty in next season with league realignment, but still believes that she has a state championship contender with the team she returns.