Syracuse, N.Y. -- Working with a young and inexperienced team, East Syracuse Minoa field hockey coach Kate Harris figured this might be a challenging year.
She was right about that. The Spartans have started the schedule 0-4-1.
But in this uncertain era of coronavirus concerns, Harris thought that more should be milked out of this season than just scoring and wins. Fun was at the top of her priority list.
And that’s where Harris saw her team really coming up short. The players had good personalities individually, but as a group Harris said she thought the Spartans were too reserved and even “boring.” So she recently told the players to liven it up a bit.
“I had called them ‘boring’ the other day,” Harris said Monday. “They are very quiet this year. I am used to having a very loud team. I pretty much told them to let their weirdness out.”
Consider that challenge met.
The Spartans flashed their flair by showing up for practice Sunday wearing formal wear. The girls stayed in their attire through the entire workout.
“Everyone was just incredibly on board,” said ESM senior forward Kodi Smith, who said she came up with the idea. “There’s just a lot of new people (on the team). We haven’t really played with everyone before. We just lost all the loud girls, because everyone graduated.”
Smith said she thought of wardrobe switch on Saturday night, following a loss to Cicero-North Syracuse. She then texted her teammates, who exchanged pictures of what they would wear.
"At first we were all like, is she being serious?'' said senior midfielder Olivia Grabowski. “It was definitely a joke at first. I’m happy that the joke turned into something happening.”
Some of the players already had prom dresses from last year, while those who didn’t went with other dress-up clothes. Grabowski, for instance, opted for a shirt and tie.
The players agreed to arrive 30 minutes early for the 10 a.m. practice so Harris would get the full impact when she got there.
“When she came in, and our assistant coach came in, they both started dying laughing,” Smith said.
“It was good. We were just planning on having a fun practice," Harris said. "For the most part, they still went hard. But it was more a relaxing, team-bonding practice than a strict practice,” Harris said. "They were joking around, saying, ‘Are we still boring?”’
Harris said she kept the workout light because it was the eighth-straight day the team had a practice or game. Still, any movement was challenging. The girls who wore long dresses tied them up in a knot near the bottom so they wouldn’t trip.
“It was kind of windy. The tie kept flipping up in my face,” Grabowski said. “There was definitely some obstacles I’m normally not used to.”
The fashion show may have been just an opening act for what the players are cooking up next. Harris and the players have an annual tradition of dressing up in costumes for a special Halloween practice. Each class comes up with a different theme for players in those grades to follow.
Those plans are still in the works, but Smith admits Sunday’s display sets a tough standard to top.
“The seniors have ideas. We’re going to figure it out,” she said. “We’re going to go all out, definitely.”
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Lindsay Kramer is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? He can be reached via email at LKramer@Syracuse.com.
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