A Q
&
amp;A with former Live Oak field hockey player and senior on the
UMass field hockey team
By Jimmy Durkin Staff Writer
Dispatch: What’s it like being back in Morgan Hill for the summer?
GINA SANDERS: This is my third summer being home after school. I really just enjoy coming home. I don’t have a job when I’m at home. My job here is working out to prepare for the season. So it’s kind of interesting, especially now that I’m getting older and all my friends are getting jobs and internships and they’re at school still, and I come home and I’m like, ‘I’m home guys, I haven’t seen you in so long.’ And they’re just not really around. So it’s been a kind of interesting time coming home every year. I’m not near the beach when I’m at school so I definitely take advantage of that, drive to Santa Cruz and Monterey a lot and go to the beach. It’s just really fun for me to pick up right back where I left off. It’s very interesting to see how the town’s developed.
Dispatch: was the transition like coming from Live Oak and Morgan Hill to UMass?
GS: Overall, the transition, because I went early to school for preseason, was easy because I met my team right away so I went into school knowing about 18 girls. It wasn’t like the first day and my parents dropped me off at the dorms and were like, ‘Hey have a good time, meet people.’ I already knew people so that was really fun. So the transition was hard at first, homesickness of course, but it’s been a good transition. I’m really happy I made the decision to go that far. It’s prepared me a lot for life because I’m hoping to get an internship after I graduate in Indiana so I feel very comfortable with living (in Indiana) for a year because I’ve been out away from home for four years.
Dispatch: What do you hope to be able to explore after college? I know you said you’re hoping for an internship?
GS: I’m majoring in communications and minoring in psychology and I like to plan events. So I’m looking to get an internship with the NCAA. Hopefully with the spot of planning the championship games, the tournament games. I think that’d be really fun. I’m looking to get that. It’s going to be a grueling process. I have to apply in December and in March they call back 26 people that applied and they fly them to Indiana and interview them. In April, they pick 13 from the 26. So it’s an intense process. If I don’t get it, I’m looking to maybe come back here and start up some younger programs for 7-year-olds for field hockey, or coach. I know San Diego has huge teams so I might move down there. I don’t really know what I’m doing yet. It’s kind of all still going to be around sports though.
Dispatch: What have you enjoyed most about college life?
GS: Even though as a Division I athlete it is your job day in and day out, you’re constantly representing the school and it can get draining and you feel like you have to be showcased a lot in the community, I think I’ve really enjoyed being an athlete. Not even just the benefits, but knowing that I have these really close friends all the time. I’ve made other friends from other sports that are going to the same classes as me. I think I’ve really just enjoyed also being far from home. It’s like my life over there and I feel like no one can take that away from me. I’ve really just enjoyed the school itself, it’s a really good school and it’s a good community too. I feel very safe and at home there.
Dispatch: What would you say the biggest highlight of your career at UMass has been so far?
GS: There’s two I guess. One’s an emotional highlight. I had three knee surgeries in a year. I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) going into my freshman year of college and I rehabbed a lot and I was fine and had a knee brace, and then I tore it again. I had my first surgery in November (of my freshman year) and then I had a couple more in the same year. I really think one of my highlights emotionally was my junior season because it was my first time I had played field hockey in three years without any problems and I felt very comfortable running and I just felt like there was no problem with me for once. Even though I have this scar to constantly remind me, I’m just like, ‘You know what, it doesn’t matter because I’m fine now.’
But another one, it doesn’t really have to do with my team itself or me playing, but UMass was the host of the Final Four (field hockey) tournament when I was a freshman and I was a ball girl. So I was right on the field with the top four teams in the United States. And I got to see the way they played and the way they developed plays. That was an awesome experience for me to be able to be there.
Dispatch: If you could accomplish one thing in your final year, what would that be?
GS: I would love, love to beat Richmond in the (Atlantic-10) Tournament, I would love to. I think that my team, we know that we can. We were a little shocked, a little taken back the second time we played them this year. It was hard, and I would love to beat them. Not even to be like ‘Yes, we beat Richmond,’ but also to finally make it past the A-10’s and onto the Sweet 16. But I think overall, something I’d like to accomplish is just leaving it out there everyday and knowing that I can’t have that day back. Just kind of giving it all every time I play and go to practice.
Dispatch: You get to come back and play those three games against Stanford, Cal and the University of Pacific. What are the emotions going to be like when you come back?
GS: I am so excited. Everyone I see, I say, ‘Come to my game.’ And they’re like, ‘What? And I say, ‘Yeah, I’m playing in California.’ And everyone is so excited. It’s kind of an opportunity for me to showcase what I’ve been working on and what I’ve learned, through when I was 10 years old and coming to the Live Oak camp. Learning from girls that went on to Berkeley to playing here (at Live Oak) and under coaches, to doing Futures and playing in all these national tournaments. I’m just so excited for my friends and family to be able to finally watch me because high school field hockey is a lot different than college. People are turned off by high school field hockey because there’s so many whistles and it’s slow. But college is very fast, you can’t even tell there’s whistles some times because it’s so fast. I think it’s just great because it’s an opportunity for people to come out and see a new sport and hopefully bring their cousins or whoever and people in the community get to see such a great sport that field hockey is because it’s very underdeveloped (on the West Coast) as opposed to the East Coast. So I’d love for it to become more developed and if it’s a chance for me to be a part of that, that’d be amazing for me. I think if I’m a starter this year, I can’t wait for (the public address announcer to say) ‘For the University of Massachusetts, from Morgan Hill, No. 6, Gina Sanders.’ And just hear the crowd go crazy because they know me. So it’ll really fun for me to be able to have that now.
Dispatch: Well, thanks a lot. Congratulations, and good luck. We’ll see you in August.
GS: Yeah, definitely, it’s exciting.
Jimmy Durkin covers sports for South Valley Newspapers. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 203 or jd*****@**********rs.com.
