Weeklong Harwich Summer Program Builds Cape Field Hockey Community

HARWICH – More than 50 girls braved the blistering heat early last week to spend a few summer days learning and practicing field hockey behind the community center.

They drilled and scrimmaged as befits a field hockey camp. They also used a slip and slide, threw water balloons and played “drip, drip, drop” (a wetter version of “duck, duck, goose”). Because sometimes it’s just that hot.

The camp served to increase access to field hockey and plant the seeds of love for the game at a young age. And while it wasn’t limited to only Harwich kids, the camp operated in an area where the game is thriving. At Monomoy Regional High School, just across the street from the community center fields where the summer program took place, the field hockey team has made the state semifinals or better for four consecutive years.

Monomoy junior varsity field hockey coach Leah Mercurio, the organizer of the program, said 54 kids ranging from kindergarten to seventh grade attended the camp in its first year. 

“It was so wildly successful that I can absolutely foresee this happening and growing for many, many years to come,” she said.

The camp’s volunteer counselors/coaches were some of Mercurio’s players, freshmen to juniors at Monomoy. Throughout the week, they led campers through drills and other exercises and activities.

“They show up every single day for these girls, and they’re like big sisters to them, so it’s awesome,” Mercurio said. 

Many counselors said they had attended similar programs as younger kids.

“When we were growing up we had a camp kind of like this, so to see it be brought back and watch all the campers have as much fun as we did, it’s really fun,” freshman Scarlett Roberts said.

When freshman Gia Mercurio attended a field hockey camp when she was younger, she looked up to the older girls and wanted to be like them, she said. 

“Even as a kid I was like, ‘Oh, I’d love to do that,’” she said. “And if I get to help girls want to come back and play field hockey more, I would love to do that.”

The campers, covering a range of ages and experience levels, worked on skills of the game like stick handling and ball dribbling. They worked their way into scrimmages and more expansive exercises, getting a chance to see how to create plays and play in position.

“It’s been really fun,” freshman Deitze Mott said. “I am so excited to see all these kids and see how they grow with all these new drills that we’re doing and see them improve.”

But the week wasn’t limited strictly to practicing field hockey. Also part of the program were team-building activities — the sort of little games you’d see at any summer camp. The last morning began with the girls each getting secretly assigned a barnyard animal and having to group together with their compatriots only by making their species’ sound. Then they played “Lover’s Leap,” a bit like musical chairs with partners and piggybacks.

“It’s good because when they’re team building, they feel that strength and confidence and then they bring that over onto the field,” Mercurio said.

The goal overall of the camp, which was open to kids across the Cape, is to build out a field hockey community so there’s good, competitive teams across the board, Mercurio said. 

Monomoy’s team, for instance, has been dominant in recent years, but if just one high school program on the Cape is being built up, no teams really benefit, according to Mercurio.

“I think building a Cape-wide field hockey community is really important so that every girl has a good competition to play against,” she said.